Selective Gathering: Season 1
by Revenant-Commander
Summary: Revised & Expanded. A future version of Oliver Queen gathers his mother and sister, Tommy Merlyn Laurel Lance, Quentin Lance, Roy Harper, and his deadliest enemy together in the hopes that not only can Malcolm be stopped from committing the Undertaking, but that the younger Emerald Archer will have an ally against Deathstroke.
1. Chapter 1: The Arrival

_**Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Arrow. **_

_**A/N: Well, here's to hoping that this less-populated viewing will help. I know people want Slade to be here, but I won't have him in from first season onward. I might have him be a special guest in Season 2, but not any further. It really depends on the situation. **_

_**For those who have a Slade fixation, I am considering doing a story which will cover only the first two seasons, and which has Shado, Slade, and Oliver from a couple months prior to the **_**Amazo's**_** arrival as the viewing party. If this is something you'd like, tell me, and I will look into writing it up. If I do that one, it will be one where they only watch the first two seasons. **_

A Selective Gathering:

Season 1

By

Revenant-Commander

Chapter 1:

The Arrival

Moira Queen was, to say the least, mildly exasperated as she was informed that her daughter had once again been brought home from one of her escapades. By the time Moira had broken out of her funk over Robert and Oliver, Thea had started acting out and it had only grown worse as Thea had grown older. Even the presence of Walter hadn't stemmed the tide, so to speak, and Moira had found the only person whom she could confide in about all this was, ironically, the very man responsible for it: Malcolm Merlyn. Like herself, Malcolm had to deal with a child who was less-inclined to take responsibility. Though even Moira had to admit that Malcolm had it worse in that Thea was a teenager whereas Tommy was the same age as Oliver would have been if he. . . .

Moira shook her head sternly, forcing herself to not dwell on what might have been. Oliver was gone, as was Robert, and it was her fault. If she had not pushed Robert to take on Malcolm (a fact Malcolm was unaware of), then not only Oliver and Robert but Sara Lance would be alive. Of course, Robert may well have taken his own life rather than continue being Malcolm's pawn and Moira would still be in the same position. She remembered very clearly that day, five years ago, when Malcolm had come to her home a few weeks after the _Gambit_ sank to speak with her.

"_Again, Moira, I am so sorry for your loss," Malcolm said as he and Moira entered the drawing room. Tommy had come over with him and taken Thea out into the city for lunch, to try and cheer the younger girl up, leaving Malcolm and Moira alone. "Robert was a good friend." _

"_I know, Malcolm," Moira said. "But if this were a mere condolence call, you would not have had Tommy take Thea out to lunch. You forget, we've been friends for years." She smiled at the man, despite her continual grief. "What is it you want?" _

"_You know that Robert and I were working with others to clean up the Glades," Malcolm said, and at Moira's nod, he continued, "Our plans changed recently, and I think that caused Robert to not check the conditions of the voyage properly." _

"_There aren't many things that would cause him to have such a severe distraction," Moira said. "Stop beating around the bush, Malcolm. I am no arm candy wife of a billionaire." _

_Despite the situation, Malcolm had to grin at that. "I'm well aware of that fact, Moira," he said, smiling. "The people in the Glades won't let the clean up happen. As I said to the others, sometimes the village must be burned before it can be saved. That is what we must do." He proceeded to explain the Undertaking to Moira, and she hid her shock and horror at his plan behind the mask she had perfected to appear congenial when all she wanted to was rip the throat out of whoever was talking down to her (which had been many when she had first started seeing Robert). Finally winding down, Malcolm said, "Queen Consolidated is ahead of us as far as technology goes. Merlyn Global would not have the ability properly construct Unidac's technology. I need your influence on QC and its new CEO." Malcolm was well aware that Walter Steele had been sniffing around of late, and knew that if there was one person who could distract the British man, it was Moira. _

It had taken a bit more convincing, but Moira had finally capitulated. Malcolm had never outright threatened either her or Thea, but she was well aware that if Malcolm was willing to kill his oldest friend, someone who was as close to a brother as he got, then he would have no trouble taking out a teenage girl, no matter how young, and her mother. Moira had considered telling Malcolm the truth about Thea briefly, if only to keep him from taking any drastic steps, but she had held herself back from it. Malcolm could not be trusted to make the right decision.

Once the police had been spoken to and Moira had made arrangements to once more pay the store owners for her daughter's antics, Moira shifted to give Thea a stern look. Before she could speak, however, an odd blue glow seemed to surround Thea, who looked frightened. "Mom!" the teenager cried out, lunging towards her mother, who grasped at her, only for her daughter to vanish before their hands could even meet. Moira felt her heart stop for a moment before blue light filled her vision. In the next moment, she was once more standing in front of Thea, but the location had changed. She joined her stunned looking daughter in looking down at the Earth below them, her sharp eyes catching the number of sattelites and the massive space station not far from where they were currently positioned (in one Moira assumed was another space station).

Back in Starling City, Quentin Lance was busy chasing down a perp when he was likewise surrounded by blue light.

Tommy Merlyn and Laurel Lance were in the midst of a discussion about their on-again off-again relationship at Laurel's apartment when they were also caught up.

Malcolm Merlyn was gazing at a picture of his family, the picture he kept in his secret alcove at Merlyn Global when the light caught him. Upon arrival, he shifted into a stance taught to him by Al-Owal, eyes darting around. He spotted the others and quickly shifted back into his more congenial mask, moving to join them in standing at the viewport. Like them, his breath was taken away by the sight that was unveiled before them.

With only one more to go, the hero known as Cyborg began to focus on the young Arsenal, Roy Harper.

In Starling City, Roy Harper was preparing to go out with some others to teach a local store owner who extorted his customers a lesson about why that sort of thing wasn't allowed in the Glades. There were a lot of men like that who people like Roy and his friends couldn't touch, they were too powerful, but men like the store owner were much more vulnerable and Roy had witnessed some of the man's extortion attempts.

Standing, Roy reached towards the gun he had been given the previous day, only for a blue light to envelope him. When the light faded, he found himself in a room with several people, none of whom he recognized. But judging by how four of them were dressed, he wasn't surprised he didn't recognize them. No one he knew would dress like that unless they were looking to get mugged.

Malcolm turned at hearing the whisper of fabric behind them and saw a young man, maybe a little older than Thea was, in a red hoodie. He had the look of a street hood from the Glades, and Malcolm could feel his lip beginning to curl, which he quickly masked as the others turned. He had a public image to maintain, after all. The red-hooded thug was the only one to see the curl of Malcolm's lip, and knew that at least one of the people in the room hated him based on nothing more than income level.

He eyed the others; one of them screamed cop, the younger of the two women looked like she had a professional job, and then there was the only other 'below 20' member of the group. He guessed she was hot, but he knew he'd never have a chance. Guys like him didn't get together with 'princesses', if only because they couldn't afford the lifestyle said girls were accustomed to. Then there was the guy who looked similar to the one who sneered at him, and the eldest woman who carried an air of superiority and confidence.

All in all, the group was made up of people who one way or another would give him the time of day only to step on him.

The door to the room hissed open, barring any further observations or potential conflicts. The group turned and found themselves staring at a man who was the very definition of a Cyborg. The cyborg smiled at them and said, "Apologies for the method of travel, but it was truly the only way to transport you here. As you can see out the window, you have been brought forward in time."

Malcolm, perhaps due to his own sense of importance or because he was the most charismatic of the group aside from Moira, said, "Why exactly have you brought us forward?"

"A good friend of mine has fought for the cause of justice for many years," the cyborg said. "He lost a lot in his early years, though, and he has been granted the chance to change that. Each of you play a pivotal role in this man's life, in one way or another. We have the ability to show you the pertinent moments in his life, the moments that shaped him into both the man he became prior to your influence, and the man he became afterward."

"Who is this man?" Moira asked, trying to think of who she would have such influence on. The only person she could possibly think of was Oliver's child, her grandchild, but if that were the case, surely this cyborg would have saved Robert and Oliver as well?

"A champion of those who are trodden on by the powerful and corrupt," the cyborg said. "If you must call him something, call him the Emerald Archer. Before we move further, there is one person who must be introduced. Roy Harper, meet Moira and Thea Queen, Detective Quentin Lance and his daughter Laurel, who works at CNRI in the Glades." Here, Roy gave the woman a nod; he knew the work CNRI did and was glad someone cared about justice in the Glades. "Then you have Malcolm Merlyn and his son, Tommy. Everyone, this is Roy Harper." Here, the Cyborg's human-looking eye glinted. "He plays a very interesting role in the life of the Archer."

Roy looked surprised at that, and Malcolm gave the young hood a more examining look. Whoever this Archer was, he was likely someone who could be either an ally or an enemy to Malcolm, particularly in light of his plans. That the Harper boy apparently had a role to play made him more than just another street thug in Malcolm's mind, even if that's all he was currently. Not to mention, there was something about the name Roy Harper niggling at the back of Malcolm's memory, as if he had heard the name before. . . .

Seeing that the group was now giving Roy looks of interest, the cyborg, known more commonly as Victor Stone, said, "Now, if you'll follow me. . . ."

While they could have argued against following the man, the group wanted to know who this man was and, more importantly, why they of all people had been selected. They followed Stone to the chamber that had been designed to be comfortable for the group and more familiar. The majority recognized the replica of the Queen Mansion's 'living room', if one could call it that since it occasionally doubled as the ballroom.

"The memories of the Archer have been distilled into the most important segments. This technology is used to educate children in schools, and we know that young humans have short attention spans," Stone said. "We've adapted it so you will be more familiar with the technology" (here he gestured to the HDTV and blu-ray player, along with discs) "and have marked the discs 'Year 1, Disc 1' and so forth. Each disc contains roughly five 'episodes' of memories." Stone gestured to a blue nodule by the door. "When you are ready to take time to rest, press that and someone will be here to escort you to rooms. While many of you are unknown, there are a handful who would. . . . startle some of those working on this station." Here, Stone's eyes flickered briefly to Malcolm Merlyn before he gave them a smile, a bow, and departed.

The only ones who had missed Stone's flicker in Merlyn's direction had been Tommy and Thea, who were still trying to wrap their heads around the whole time travel aspect of this scenario.

Quentin took a seat in one of the two armchairs; the second was quickly claimed by Roy, who was not willing to sit next to anyone at the moment. Tommy and Laurel glanced at one another briefly before taking the loveseat, which all but ensured that Malcolm and Moira would sit on the sofa along with Thea, who ended up seated between them. Above them, watching silently, Oliver Queen and the future Roy Harper (known as Arsenal) watched this. Arsenal glanced at his one-time mentor and friend and said, "You sure about this?"

"Not really," Oliver said. "But if anything can get through to Merlyn, its this tactic. Besides," he gave a bit of a cocky grin to his younger friend, "if he doesn't cooperate we can always send him back after wiping his memories. But we have to give him a chance, at least, to change. After the Undertaking, there was never a chance of that. And unfortunately, I had to go to the Island." Arsenal nodded with a grimace.

Down in the viewing room, Thea had taken control of the remote and was beginning the memory sequences. Not a single person there could have been prepared for what was about to be revealed.

_**A/N: So, here's the beginning of the new version. **_


	2. Chapter 2: Pilot

Chapter One:

Pilot

_A figure is running through the woods, ducking under trees and jumping across gaps._

Malcolm was watching the figure and noted the man who he assumed was the previously-mentioned Archer was quite athletic, and seemed to know where he was going by memory. The island he was on had clearly helped hone his senses in more ways than one, and Malcolm could tell that the man was quite agile, something that was needed when fighting.

Thea and Laurel both took note of the athleticism of the man dashing through the forest and neither of them could deny it was certainly hot, though Laurel rarely used such terms after the deaths of her sister and ex-boyfriend. Sara had always been the one to talk that way, and Laurel had always had to act the responsible sister.

Tommy saw the look on Laurel's face and winced, knowing that Laurel was at least eying the man if not thinking other thoughts. He wasn't exactly a prime physical specimen at the moment. . . .

Quentin likewise saw his daughter's look and grimaced. What was it with his daughters and going after men who were less-than-decent? He had a pretty good idea that when the cyborg had said the Archer was a champion for those trodden on by the powerful and corrupt he meant the man was a vigilante.

Moira, for her part, merely watched. There was a hope beginning to stir in her heart, but she dared not let it show, not with Malcolm only feet away from her.

_The figure arrives on a bluff, looking out over the island and the sea beyond it. A fishing ship can be seen in the distance. The man continues to run, and comes to a stop near a cache of arrows. He slams a well-worn K-Bar knife into the rock and uses it to light the tar around the arrow. He fires it, and it collides with a bonfire on the beach. _

"Excellent form," Malcolm said, and Thea nodded in agreement. Malcolm spotted this and said, "I didn't know you had an interest in archery, Thea."

"Yeah, I kinda stopped after Dad and Ollie. . . ." Thea trailed off, remembering that horrible day when she had been told her father and brother had been killed in a storm.

Malcolm grimaced and said, "Yes, that's very understandable. Still, it is a good skill to have. It can be applied to. . . . . other arenas, as we can assume from what our cyborg friend told us."

Tommy grimaced again at his father's interest in something other than his own flesh-and-blood. His father had shown a great deal more interest in Oliver's life than in his own son's, and now he was doing the same with Thea? What the hell was going on there?

_On the ship, two crewmen see the bonfire. _

_A tattered and burned black and yellow mask with an arrow struck through one side rests on the remnants of a pole, almost as though acting as a grave-marker. _

There were some raised eyebrows at this one. Malcolm was sure he had heard of such a mask before, but couldn't quite remember where. He would have to look into that once they returned to their own time. The question was, whose grave (or memorial) was it, if it was indeed a grave marker and not a warning to trespassers?

_The crewmen of the ship step onto the island as the hooded figure steps forward, falling to his knees in relief as he pulls the hood back. _

Moira felt emotion bubbling up inside of her as she stared into the man's face. He was tanned; his hair and beard overgrown; and she could only assume he had received injuries in his time. But she knew the man, knew him to his very heart even if he didn't know it himself. A mother can always recognize her son. Looking around, she saw she had received odd looks, and Malcolm was eying her curiously. "Moira? What is it?" Malcolm asked her.

Her one-word answer sent chills through the room. "Oliver."

Malcolm turned back to the screen, studying the man there. Slowly, he realized Moira was right. The Archer was Oliver Queen. He never would have believed Oliver would have it in him, but perhaps there was more to the Queen scion than even Malcolm had seen. Glancing over in the direction of his own son, Malcolm saw Tommy was frowning; he knew Tommy had feelings for Laurel, but judging from the woman's own expression, which was a mixture of anger, hope, and wonder, she would be more than likely involved in Oliver's actions.

Thea gripped her mother's hand tightly as she stared at her brother, who had somehow survived for five years. Her brother, who according to the cyborg had become a champion for those who were victimized by the more criminal of the wealthy; she couldn't quite picture her brother, who had always been more likely to be on the other side of the law, helping them out.

Quentin Lance's mouth had gone dry as he stared at Queen; he tried to imagine the spoiled boy he had known, who had broken his daughter's heart and killed the other, surviving for five years and couldn't quite wrap his head around it. Quentin looked to his remaining daughter, who was caught between anger, hope, and wonder.

Laurel, for her part, was currently involved in a inner conflict as the two primal sides of her personality came into play: the side that desired to see justice done for the downtrodden against the powerful and corrupt, and the side that had been broken when Oliver had taken Sara with him on the _Gambit_. She still remembered how stunned and hut she had been when Moira had told she and her father that Sara had snuck aboard the _Gambit_ at the last minute.

Roy, who had never met the Queen scion but knew of his reputation, was surprised and it showed. But there was a curiosity there, as well; what could drive someone from that world to be a champion for people like him?

"_The name of the island they found me on is Lian Yu. It's Mandarin, for purgatory. I've been stranded here for five years, and I've dreamt of my rescue every cold black night since then. For 5 years, I have had only one thought, one goal: survive. Survive and one day return home."_

_The man is seen on the ship, being handed a hot beverage by one of the crew._

_"The island held many dangers. To live, I had to make myself more than what I was, to forge myself into a weapon. I am returning; not the boy who was shipwrecked, but the man who will bring justice to those who have poisoned my city." The man glares out towards where the Island can be seen, his expression dark. "My name is Oliver Queen."_

Laurel felt a chill go up her spine at Oliver's words. While Oliver had had inklings of the strength that his mother had, he had rarely shown it, preferring to continue down the path of the affable, and always drunken, playboy. But the dedication with which Oliver had just spoken of his desire to see justice brought to the criminal and corrupt of Starling was something that reverberated within her.

Tommy frowned at Laurel's shifting expression, but also thought over what Oliver had said. Tommy might have been relatively unobservant and acted carefree, but he couldn't claim that the city wasn't being poisoned. The problem was whether it was the rich and powerful who were the poison or the people in the Glades. While Tommy was very much his mother's son, there was a side to him that felt there was something to his father's dislike of the Glades. He knew his father was trying to find a way to help the Glades (a few overheard conversations over the years made that clear) but from what little had been revealed Tommy doubted his father's attempts would ever work.

Moira and Thea both felt a chill similar to Laurel, for different reasons. Thea couldn't reconcile her brother with the man on the screen nor his words. Moira, on the other hand, had a suspicion that Oliver had learned at least some of the truth regarding the Undertaking from Robert before the _Gambit_ sank. Nothing else would have made Oliver decide to face off with Malcolm, albeit unknowingly; unless it was something or someone else Oliver was referring to? Robert _had _had a copy of the List.

Quentin felt somewhat vindicated in knowing that his assumption that the Archer (now revealed to be Queen) was going to be a vigilante. He hated those who went outside the law to find justice. They were as bad as the people they hunted, most of the time. Queen was no different; in fact, he was on par with a lot of the perps that Quentin had collared over the years.

Roy Harper frowned at what the missing Queen scion was saying on-screen. He knew that most people from the other end of the financial spectrum considered people like him thugs and that they were the poison choking society to death. But the cyborg had said that Queen was a champion _for_ people like those who Roy tried to help, too, not a champion against them, for the rich and powerful.

Finally, Malcolm studied his old friend's son and felt an odd sensation that he belatedly realized was a sense of kinship. Like himself, Oliver had been forced to see the dark side of humanity and was using skills he had acquired to bring justice to those who poisoned the city. Like Moira, Malcolm was fairly certain that Oliver would be targeting the List, unless Robert had revealed the entire plan. If Oliver was indeed targeting the List and only the List, Malcolm would allow the Queen family scion his hunting while Malcolm focused on preparations for the Undertaking. _  
_

_A newscaster appears on the screen._

_"Oliver Queen is alive. The Starling City resident was found by fishermen in the North China sea and presumed dead following the accident at sea which claimed "The Queen's Gambit." An image of Oliver being followed by paparazzi is shown. "Queen was a regular tabloid presence and a fixture at the Starling City club scene. Shortly before his disappearance, he was acquitted of assault charges stemming from a highly publicized drunken altercation with paparazzi." An image of Oliver and Robert together is put up on the screen. "Queen is the son of Starling City billionaire Robert Queen, who was also on board but now officially confirmed as deceased."  
_

Moira closed her eyes and held Thea close to her; she had hoped, with Oliver being alive, that there was a chance for Robert. But now she knew; and worse, the only chance she and her family had at surviving Malcolm's madness was her son and his new skillset. She was both hoping that Robert had told Oliver the information he needed to take down Malcolm and dreading the possibility at the same time.

"_20 percent of his body is covered in scar tissue." Oliver, now with a haircut and in a hospital gown, can be seen looking out at the city beyond the window. "Second-degree burns on his back and arms. X-rays show at least that never properly healed." _

Malcolm grimaced. While some of those injuries would have been the result of simple survival on the island, others were quite frankly the result of torture. Quentin Lance was likewise grimacing, as the list of injuries kept him from hating Queen as passionately as he wanted to. He had spent some time on the SCPD's organized crime task force and he had seen his fair share of the aftermath when someone was tortured. He had transferred to homicide primarily because he had a family to care for and most of those in organized crime were unattached or spent their time in meaningless relationships.

_Moira, watching her son through the glass, turns. Her expression is one of hidden devastation. "Has he said anything about what happened?" _

"_No," the doctor replies. "He's barely said anything. Moira, I'd like you to prepare yourself. The Oliver you lost might not be the one they found." Moira nods quickly, then enters the room._

Not a single person could articulate how much of an understatement that was, and they hadn't even seen Oliver in action as of yet; perhaps it was because of the startling nature of their arrival or something else, but they trusted what the cyborg had meant when he said Oliver was a champion for the downtrodden. _  
_

"_Oliver?" she calls in a wavering voice. _

_Oliver turns. For a moment his expression is blank, than a soft smile can be seen. "Mom."  
_

_Moira goes up to him, her composure loosening with each step, until she half-sobs, "Oh, my beautiful boy," and wraps her arms around him. Oliver returns the hug almost woodenly._

It was this scene that caused the dam to break for Moira, Thea, and Laurel. Each of them remembered how lively Oliver had been before the storm. To see him act so woodenly now, so void of life, was heart-breaking and a testament to what he must have been through.

Moira, of course, felt a rash of guilt even now due to the fact that it was her actions, her request for Robert to challenge Malcolm, albeit subtly, that had led to Oliver's death; and regardless of whether he was alive or not, Moira knew in her heart that the son she had been shown before the storm was dead; in his place was the one strong enough to challenge Malcolm, the son who took after her far more than he knew.

Thea was trying to reconcile her brother's almost wooden nature with the brother she remembered, the one who she would chase after constantly, earning the nickname Speedy as a result. She burrowed herself into her mother's side like she had when she was younger, and still did occasionally when she was feeling more down than normal.

_Now daytime, a car pulls up to the Queen Mansion. Oliver gets out and, when the driver reaches for a large wooden case, grabs it on his own and says, "I've got it."_

_Inside, Oliver sets the case down as Moira turns to him, saying, "Your room is exactly as you left it. I never had the heart to change a thing." Oliver looks around the entrance hall as Walter Steele approaches. "Oliver. It's damn good to see you." He shakes Oliver's hand, while Oliver looks at him in confusion. "It's Walter. Walter Steele."  
_

Moira grimaced as she saw her son's face. She had failed to tell him that she and Walter were married, it was plain to see.

_Moira touches Oliver on the arm. "You remember Walter, your father's friend from the company." Oliver nods, then goes to the maid, who is standing there with a smile on her face.  
_

"_It's good to see you, Raisa."  
_

"_Welcome home, Mr. Oliver," the maid replies before turning to Moira and Walter. "Mr. Merlyn phoned. He wants to join you for dinner."_

"_Wonderful. Oliver? Did you hear that?" _

_Oliver appears to ignore her as he goes to the bottom of the steps. He looks up to where Thea is standing. "Hey, sis."_

_Thea bounds down the stairs, and wraps her brother in a hug which he returns with a bit more warmth. "I knew it. I knew you were alive. I missed you so much."  
_

"_You were with me the whole time."  
_

The reunion between siblings brought smiles to those watching. Thea had stopped thinking about what Oliver was now, for the time being, since there was no more outward sign that he had become someone else.

_At the CNRI office, Laurel is in the middle of an argument with Joanna as they move through the office. "Come on, Laurel. We're lawyers, not miracle workers. We can't win this."  
_

_Laurel sifts through files as she replies, "If we can't win a class-action suit against a man who swindled hundreds of people out of their homes and life savings, then we're not fit to call ourselves a legal aid office."  
_

"_And if we go bankrupt in the process, we won't be a legal aid office. Hunt has an army of lawyers, and they're ready to bury us."_

Quentin Lance grimaced at this. Adam Hunt was a ruthless bastard, and the police hadn't yet managed to pin any crimes on him, despite the fact that everyone in Starling, and in particular the Glades, 'knew' the sorts of activities Hunt engaged in. That Laurel was working towards taking the man down filled Quentin with both pride and fear; the only thing that kept him from putting guards on her was that Hunt, at least, preferred to hide behind attorneys rather than armed gunmen. _  
_

"_You and I against an army. I love those odds."  
_

"_Why do you hate me?"_

_Joanna walks away as Laurel sits at her desk. In the background, chimes of the news can be heard before a newscaster says, "And in other news, details as to the castaway story you've all heard about the son of a very wealthy billionaire will soon become a legendary story. Jessica now has more details and the complete castaway story." Laurel stands and moves to watch the news story with the rest of the office. _

Laurel in the room stiffened, knowing exactly why she was moving to the screen. She wanted to know if her sister was alive. Quentin had likewise stiffened, his mind blanking of any other thoughts as he focused on the television, knowing that he was about to find out for certain if Sara had died on the boat or made it to the Island with Queen.

_"The Queen's Gambit was last heard from more than 5 years ago. Mr. Queen has reportedly confirmed he was the only survivor of the accident that took the lives of local resident Sara Lance, survived by her sister, Laurel-" Laurel turns off the TV, bringing the attention of the office to her._

"Well, that's confirmation at least," Quentin managed to say. He would grieve in private later. He glanced at Laurel, and noted that Merlyn Jr. had wrapped his arm around her shoulders. For once, Quentin decided to say nothing since the boy was comforting his daughter while he couldn't, and Laurel needed it.

Laurel, for her part, was trying to keep from breaking; when Sara had died, she had felt as though a part of her had died with her, had sunk into the ocean with the _Gambit_, Sara, and the Queens.

_Back at the Queen Mansion, Oliver is coming out of the shower in nothing but a towel. Scars and tattoos are visible on his torso. _

Horrified gasps sprung from Moira and Thea as they saw Oliver standing in his bedroom, but with the evidence of his experiences for all to see. Not one of the scars they could see was natural, like if you had opened up a gash on your arm or torso. No, every single scar, from the ones made by blades to the ones made by burning was deliberate and centralized.

Moira felt a burning sense of anger and rage at not only herself, but the person who had done this to Oliver; she would find them and she would unleash hell on them for what they had done. The only regret she had was that she would be unable to unleash hell on Malcolm as well for his part in all this.

Thea's mind had gone blank, all she could do was stare at the screen and the evidence of her brother's suffering.

Malcolm hid his reaction beyond the shock and horror he was meant to be showing, and he didn't really have to pretend, either. He had, after all, known Oliver and taken an interest in his life since it had become very clear that Tommy would follow the Queen scion's lead. Oliver's experiences were on par, if not greater, than Malcolm's own; it would be intriguing to see what had forged the young man he remembered into a social crusader.

Quentin shook his head at seeing Queen's torso. As much as he hated Queen, he couldn't pretend he didn't feel sympathy for him. The spoiled boy had become a man through probably the worst methods possible.

Tears fell free of Laurel's eyes as she took in the scars, as she tried to imagine what Oliver must've gone through. She couldn't imagine her boyfriend (_ex-boyfriend!_ She reminded herself harshly) managing to keep silent through that; but the greatest question of all was _why_ Oliver had been tortured.

"_After 5 years, everything that was once familiar is now unrecognizable. The face I see in the mirror is a stranger." A flash of lightning, and the reflection changes for a moment to show a man in a hood before another flash of lightning. _

_The image shifts to a hallway in the Queen's Gambit as Robert Queen and one of the crewmen enter from the outside. _

"Robert," Moira said softly, watching her deceased husband in a rapturous fashion. Thea was likewise watching her father, a hungry expression on her face as she took in the face of the man, his last moments. It was as those words passed through her head that Thea's breath hitched. Moira looked at her daughter. "Thea?"

"D-do you think we're going to see what happened?" Thea said, and wished she hadn't of said it. Laurel gasped at that, and Quentin clenched the arms of his chair. These people couldn't be that cruel, right? _Oliver_ couldn't be that cruel.

"_The storm's a category 2. The captain's recommending we head back."  
_

_Robert replies, "All right. Inform the crew."_

_Oliver comes up to them. "Are we in trouble?" _

Again, the crowd drank in the image of the then-untroubled and unscarred Queen scion, trying to reconcile the image of the just-out-of-boyhood man with the scarred and dangerous individual who had returned.

_Robert smiles at his son as he says, "One of us is."_

_"Ollie?" Sara is leaning out the cabin door. _

Quentin and Laurel examined their lost family member with the same hunger that Thea and Moira had examined Robert.

"_Where do you keep the bottle opener on this thing?" _

Laurel remembered a very similar question being asked by her only weeks from that fateful voyage.

_Oliver gestures for her to go back inside. "I'll be there in a minute, Sara."  
_

_Robert puts a hand on Oliver's shoulder. "You know, son, that is not going to finish well for either of them or for you."_

Neither Moira nor Malcolm could hide their disbelief at Robert's comment, and Quentin's eyes narrowed. There was something going on there; then again, these _were_ the idle rich. They weren't exactly known for their fidelity to one another. _  
_

_Back in the Queen Mansion, Oliver is looking at a picture when the door opens behind him. He turns to see Tommy standing there. "What did I tell you? Yachts suck."  
_

"_Tommy Merlyn."  
_

_The two men hug._

"_I missed you, buddy."  
_

_Now at dinner, Tommy is catching Oliver up on things he missed. "Ok. What else did you miss? Super bowl winners Giants, Steelers, Saints, Packers, Giants again. A black president, that's new. Oh, and "Lost," they were all dead I think." Meanwhile, Walter and Moira are clearly in a romantic relationship. _

_Thea asks Oliver, "What was it like there?" _

Tommy and Laurel turned to Thea, looks of disbelief covering their faces. "Seriously?" Tommy says. "Speedy, Oliver's not going to want to talk about that Island, if his scars are any indication. Isn't that why we're here?"

Thea, feeling a bit pissy, said, "Yes. But we didn't do this in _that_ timeline, now did we?" her voice was the same sweet one her mother used when she wanted to deliver a particularly vicious point, and Moira had to hide a grin. Malcolm also hid his own smile. Thea had a sharp tongue when she wanted to use it, which wasn't all that often.

_Everyone stops, turning to look at Oliver, who says, "Cold."  
_

_After a moment, Tommy says, "Tomorrow, you and me, we're doing the city. You've got a lot to catch up on."  
_

"_That sounds like a great idea," Moira adds.  
_

"_Good," Oliver replies. "Then I was hoping to swing by the office."  
_

Moira raised her eyebrow.

Malcolm frowned and said, "I think Oliver is trying to make it seem as though nothing has changed with him; its expected by many that he would take a place at Queen Consolidated. I hope you don't make the mistake of trying to force him to, Moira. He needs to work through his trauma before he can do that."

Moira said nothing, but nodded. She didn't quite trust herself to not say anything that would reveal the Undertaking. Malcolm would not take kindly to that. . . . but if Oliver's memories were of what she suspected, those gathered here would know the lengths of depravity Malcolm Merlyn was willing to go to. She would simply have to wait.

_Walter appears startled as he finishes a drink rather quickly. "Well, there's plenty of time for all that. Queen Consolidated isn't going anywhere."  
_

_Raisa accidentally drops a bit of food near Oliver and she says, "Oh, I am so sorry, Mr. Oliver." Oliver replies to her in Russian, assuring her.  
_

Malcolm raised an eyebrow at that. Oliver must have had quite the experience on Lian Yu if he knew how to speak Russian so fluently.

_Tommy looks surprised, and with a smirk says, "Dude, you speak Russian?" _

_Walter, looking curious, says, "I didn't realize you took Russian at college, Oliver."  
_

_Oliver replies, "I didn't realize you wanted to sleep with my mother, Walter." _

Tommy grinned and Laurel covered her laugh with a cough. It appeared that Oliver still had a tendency towards blunter statements rather than dancing around an issue. Thea was likewise chuckling, her chest vibrating against her mother's as Moira hid a grin of her own.

Roy Harper looked at the group in disbelief. _Guess the rich really are different,_ he thought, as if he had done that sort of thing he would've gotten smacked by someone.

_Moira and Walter look shocked for a moment before glancing at Thea, who shakes her head.  
_

"_I didn't say anything."  
_

"_She didn't have to."_

_Moira nods and takes Walter's hand as she says, "Oliver, Walter and I are married, and I don't want you to think that either one of us did anything to disrespect your father."  
_

_Walter takes up from there with, "We both believed that Robert, like you, was, uh, well, gone."  
_

"_It's fine," Oliver said before pushing away from the table. "May I be excused?" _

_At Moira's nod, he walks away as Tommy says, "Hey, don't forget about tomorrow, buddy."  
_

_Oliver is seen sleeping on the floor before flashing back to the Queen's Gambit, where Sara counting can be heard. "It's getting closer," Sara says.  
_

"Oh, God, no," Quentin muttered, his fists clenching again. Laurel was also looking high-strung as the group slowly realized what they were about to see. Silence fell, as they nervously waited to see if these memories would be so cruel as to show the death of Sara.

_Oliver, with a pair of champagne glasses in hand, walks over, handing Sara a glass as he says, "That's not very scientific."  
_

_Sara takes the glass, asking, "What would you know about science, Mr. Ivy League dropout?" _

_Oliver, a flirtatious look on his face, says, "I happen to know a lot about science. I know about fermentation. I know biology." _

_The two begin kissing briefly before Sara says, "Laurel's gonna kill me. Oh, she's so gonna kill me."  
_

"_Your sister will never know," Oliver says before he moves towards Sara again. "Come here."  
_

"_Ha ha!" The two kiss briefly before another clash of thunder is heard. "Ok, that one was really close."  
_

"_Sara, we're gonna be fine," Oliver says, before the boat suddenly lurches and the two are thrown against the wall. Oliver looks up, sees Sara with a cut on her forehead near the door. "Sara?" A gush of water can be seen, and Sara screams as she's pulled out. _

Quentin let out a scream of rage and agony at having to see Sara die. Laurel had huddled up against Tommy, and her sobs filled the air. Quentin, unable to take it, stood sharply, knocking the chair backwards. Unknown to them, outside the door, Oliver Queen was adjusting his normal business suit, preparing to enter. They had to see that to understand part of why he had become what he had become, and why he allowed them to trash him that first year and a half back, but he couldn't leave them hanging, believing Sara was dead. He wouldn't tell them everything, just enough.

He entered the room, and everyone's gaze shifted. Moira gasped softly; her son had become almost the spitting image of his father in his later years, his eyes holding the same warmth that Robert's had before his involvement with Malcolm. Thea examined her brother as well, happy to see he was alive and here, something that made these memories more real.

Quentin zeroed in on Oliver and before anyone could say a word he was rushing at him. Thea and Moira gave a cry of alarm when Quentin moved to deliver a right hook to Oliver's jaw, but Oliver caught his throw and twisted the other man's arms, not unlike Slade had done to him in Queen Mansion all those years ago. "She's alive, Quentin," Oliver said, and those three words sapped all the rage out of Quentin.

"W-what?" Quentin said. "But. . . ." he pointed at the screen, his gaze questioning.

Oliver said, "As far as the Oliver who has just returned from the Island is concerned, yes, she's dead. But she's a lot stronger than even I had thought. She returns to Starling a year after I do. That's all I can tell you. I'm sorry you had to see this, Quentin. There's another one coming; but you all need to see these things, because they're what made me the man I was when I first returned to Starling."

Oliver moved past Quentin and was instantly met by his mother and sister. They clung to him, Moira sobbing softly into his shoulder. He held them both tight, and remembered those last moments he had with his mother. He felt a lump in his throat. He shifted his mother so he could face her. She looked up at him questioningly.

His eyes shining with tears, he said, "I'm sorry. It's just been too long since I saw you. . . alive."

"When?" Moira asked quietly.

"You'll see," Oliver said. "I just can't. . . ."

Moira nodded softly and put a hand on her son's shoulder. "Don't worry, my beautiful boy," she said softly. "I won't let whatever happened happen again."

Oliver nodded. He said, "There's something else. We need to meet privately after this set of memories. It's better that it comes out now and not through the memoires. Malcolm and Tommy need to be there, too." Moira's eyes widened, but she nodded. She hated that she would have to break her daughter's heart, but it was better that she learned of her parentage from her family instead of from the memories.

Oliver stepped back and headed for the door. Quentin stopped him. "Why did you tell me?"

Oliver looked at the man and said, "Because you and I worked together for a lot of years to make Starling City a better place." A bit of the boyish grin he had once sported so often appeared as he added, "Besides, if you looked sour the entire time you might get your face fixed like that." With that, Oliver was out the door, and Quentin blinked in disbelief.

He turned back and said, "Guess he got his sense of humor back along the way. . ." He righted his seat and got ready to continue watching. Laurel had dried her tears upon learning that her sister _was_ alive. Moira and Thea, now feeling better having seen Oliver in the flesh, sat down as well.

_The next image is of Oliver in the ocean, looking around wildly. "Sara! Sara!" _

"_Oliver!" Robert and a crewman pull Oliver onto a life raft. _

Malcolm raised an eyebrow. So Robert had survived the attempt, but not whatever happened on the Island. This made Oliver's survival all the more interesting; then again, Oliver _was_ a young man and Robert was past his prime in life.

_Oliver turns and sees the Queen's Gambit sinking. _

"_Sara!" Robert and the crewman hold Oliver back as he tries to get back into the ocean and find her. "No!"_

"_Oliver, she's not there." _

_Dad, she's out there! Sara!"_

"_She's gone, son."  
_

_Back in the Queen Mansion, Oliver is sleeping in front of the window, rain covering his body, as Moira attempts to shake him awake. "Oliver, wake up. Oliver?" Oliver awakens, and his reaction is to knock Moira to the ground and place a hand in a knife-style chop across her throat. _

Moira stared at her son's reaction being woken up and made a mental note to never startle him awake. Malcolm knew those tactics were used by black ops. groups around the world. Oliver's time on the Island was beginning to look _very_ interesting. If these flashbacks continued as the cyborg had seemed to imply, then it would be interesting to see how Oliver became the Archer.

_Walter, standing nearby, shouts, "Oliver!" and wakes Oliver from his reflexive action. _

_Oliver glances down and scrambles away as Moira coughs, Oliver mumbling, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."  
_

_Moira puts a hand out towards him as she says, "Oh, it's ok, Oliver. It's all right, sweetheart. You're home. You're home."_

_The next day, Thea and a friend of her's are in her room, cutting crushed up pills into thin strips, most likely to snort them. _

Time seemed to freeze as Moira stiffened next to her daughter, even as Thea grimaced. This was not going to end well.

The rebuke did not come from Moira, though. It came from Tommy. "THEA QUEEN!" Tommy shouted, standing and glaring at his unknown sister. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Thea's eyes widened and she stood herself, glaring at Tommy. "Excuse me? Who's the one who's so wasted that he doesn't know which girl he's fucked?"

Tommy folded his arms across his chest and said, "Yes, I drink a lot, and I smoke pot! But I have _never_ touched hard drugs like that, and neither did Oliver!"

Thea opened her mouth to argue that they had, but then she realized that neither Tommy nor Oliver had. She stopped and sat down.

Moira nodded her approval to what Tommy said before turning to Thea. "I think, Thea, that when we return home I am going to be setting some boundaries. If you do not abide by them, the next time the police arrest you for possession or burglary, I will not lift a finger."

Thea felt a chill at that. She knew damn well the only reason she hadn't faced jail time yet was because she was a Queen. If her mother removed that 'protection', so to speak. . . .

Quentin coughed and said, "I'll help with that, Moira. I can speak with whatever judge so she doesn't get jail time, but she won't be having a nice time of it either."

"Thank you, Quentin," Moira replied.

Malcolm saw the effect this had on Thea and decided he would, in fact, go through with his own plan for Tommy to grow up a bit more.

_Thea, a semi-excited grin on her face, asks, "Where did you get these?" _

_Her friend smiles and says, "Roxies. Thank you, daddy's ACL tear."_

_A knock on the door precedes Oliver entering. Thea's friend sweeps the drugs into her palm as Thea says, "Ollie," and gives him a hug.  
_

_Oliver stiffens slightly but returns the hug and says, "No one's called me that in a while, Speedy."  
_

_Thea, who has pulled away, sighs and says, slightly exaggeratedly, "Worst nickname ever."_

_Oliver smiles and says, "What, always chasing after me as a kid? I thought it fit pretty well." His expression becomes slightly more serious. "Maybe it still does."_

"Ah, crap," Thea said. Moira smirked, and Tommy wasn't far behind. They knew exactly how protective of his sister Oliver had been. Anyone who threatened her was going to have a _very fun_ time of it.

_Thea's friend, apparently sensing danger, leaves with a "See you at school, Speedy."  
Thea shakes her head, saying, "Sorry about her."  
_

_Oliver says, "I have something for you," while reaching into his pocket.  
_

"_You did not come back from a deserted island with a souvenir," Thea scoffs.  
_

_Oliver shows the hozen to her as he says, "It's a Hozen. And in buddhism, it symbolizes reconnecting. I kept it in hopes that one day, it would reconnect me with you."  
_

Malcolm tilted his head. _Fluent in Russian, Mandarin, and knows the Buddhist culture, not to mention excellent skills in archery. _This Island of Oliver's was looking more intriguing by the minute to a man of Malcolm's nature.

_Thea smiles as she takes it. From behind them comes Tommy's somewhat mocking voice. "A rock!" Oliver tilts his head, smiling at Thea as Tommy comes around to stand to the side of the Queen siblings. "That is sweet. You know, I want one of those t-shirts that says "my friend was a castaway, and all I got was this crappy shirt." _

_Thea smiles at the two before giving her brother a look. "Don't let him get you into too much trouble. You just got back. Take it slow."  
_

"_Ahem," Tommy fake coughs before gesturing. "The city awaits." The two leave Thea's room, the girl watching them go. In the hall, Tommy asks, "Have you noticed how hot your sister's gotten?" Oliver looks about ready to beat him up, and Tommy raises his hands in surrender. "Because I have not."  
_

"I'd suggest you not say anything like that around Oliver," Laurel told her on-again off-again boyfriend. "But on the off-chance you forget… do you have a specific coffin you want to be buried in?"

Malcolm gave his son a disapproving look, which Tommy brushed off. Yes, Malcolm was definitely going through with his plan. Otherwise his son would never learn the hard lessons of life.

_Tommy and Oliver are driving through the city. "Your funeral blew," Tommy says.  
_

_Oliver, smiling, turns and asks, "Did you get lucky?" _

_Tommy chuckles, "Fish in a barrel. They were so sad. . . ." _

_Oliver interjects with a groaned, "No. . . ."  
_

"_And huggy." Tommy continues. "And I am counting on another target rich environment for your welcome home bash."  
_

"_At my what?" Oliver says, confused. _

_Tommy looks at Oliver like he's crazy. "You came back from the dead. This calls for a party. You tell me where and when. I'll take care of everything."  
_

_The car pulls up outside the Queen steel factory in the Glades. "This city's gone to crap. Your dad sold his factory just in time. And why'd you want to drive through this neighborhood anyway?" _

_Oliver looks out the window at the factory and mutters, "No reason."  
_

"Try the other one, Ollie," Thea huffed out. She knew her brother, and he was lying his ass off there.

_Tommy, hands still on the wheel, asks, "So what'd you miss the most, steaks at the palm, drinks at the station, meaningless sex?" _

"_Laurel." _

Quentin groaned, Tommy rolled his eyes, and Laurel looked sheepish. Moira hid a smile behind her hand while Thea openly chuckled at her brother's single-minded nature. Even Malcolm and Roy (who had only gotten an inkling of Oliver and Laurel's relationship) were amused.

_The one word answer sobers Tommy up. He turns in his seat to look at Oliver.  
_

"_Everyone is happy you're alive. You want to see the one person who isn't?"_

Laurel winced. She knew she wouldn't quite give Oliver much room.

_At CNRI, Laurel is approached by Joanna as they walk through the narrow walkways of the room. "Laurel, I just got this from Hunt's lawyers." Joanna hands the file to Laurel. "They filed a change of venue. We are now in front of Judge Grell."  
_

"Damn it," Laurel muttered. Roy scowled as well; word on the street was that Hunt had Grell bought and paid for, which was confirmed by the Laurel on-screen.

"_Hunt funded Grell's reelection campaign," Laurel replies. "He's got Grell in his back pocket."  
_

"_Mm-hmm," Joanna nods. "You know, it's fun being your friend. I get to say "I told you so" a lot."  
_

"_No," Laurel says, turning to face Joanna. "Adam Hunt is not smarter than we are."  
_

"_No, he's just richer and willing to commit multiple felonies."  
_

"_We don't need to go outside the law-" Laurel begins. _

"_To find justice," Joanna finishes. "Your dad's favorite jingle."_

Quentin smirked, but it faded as Roy Harper scoffed. "Got something to say, Harper?" he asked.

"Just that you got no fucking clue what goes on in the Glades," Roy said. "If you did, you'd know your 'laws' only help the criminals, not hurt them."

Malcolm was beginning to get an inkling exactly what role Harper played in Oliver's life. _So,_ he mused. _Oliver takes on an apprentice._

_The two stop at seeing Oliver standing at Laurel's desk, looking at the pin-it board she has up, connecting Adam Hunt's various subsidiaries, crimes, etc. Oliver turns. "Hello, Laurel."  
_

_Outside, Oliver and Laurel are walking side-by-side. "You went to law school. You said you would," Oliver says.  
_

"_Yeah," Laurel replies shortly. "Everyone's proud."  
_

"_Adam Hunt's a heavy hitter," Oliver points out. "You sure you want to get in the ring with him?"_

_Laurel glances over at Oliver as she asks incredulously, "Five years and you want to talk about Adam Hunt?" _

"_No," Oliver replies softly. "Not really."  
_

"_Why are you here, Ollie?" _

"_To apologize," Oliver replies stiffly, an undercurrent of guilt in his voice and body language. "It was my fault. I wanted to ask you not to blame her."  
_

_Laurel looks about ready to scoff. "For what? Falling under your spell. How could I possibly blame her for doing the same things that I did?" _

"_I never meant to-" Oliver begins before Laurel cuts him off. _

"_She was my sister," Laurel says, anger creeping into her voice. "I couldn't be angry because she was dead. I couldn't grieve because I was so angry. That's what happens when your sister dies while screwing your boyfriend." She swallows her anger as she continues, "We buried an empty coffin, because her body was at the bottom of the ocean where you left her." Laurel pauses for a moment before saying accusingly, "It should have been you."  
_

"_I know that it's too late to say this, but I'm sorry," Oliver says.  
_

_Laurel, angry again, replies, "Yeah, I'm sorry, too. I'd hoped that you'd rot in hell a whole lot longer than 5 years." She begins walking away, and passes by Tommy. "How did you think that was gonna go, Tommy?"_

"_About like that," Tommy replies.  
_

_Tommy and Oliver are walking back to Tommy's car. Tommy says, "Ok, so we took care of that. Now we can make up for lost time. If you're not too sick of fish, I suggest we find some leggy models and eat sushi all day. What do you say?" _

"One track mind much, Merlyn?" Quentin asked, and Roy nodded in agreement. It seemed the younger Merlyn had issues with looking at the world seriously.

_A van pulls up behind them. "What're they doing?" Tommy says, alarmed as men jump out and fire tranquilizers at the two young men. "What the hell?" Tommy gets out before succumbing to the dart's effects. _

Malcolm stiffened at this, and Moira likewise shot up, ramrod straight, in her seat. Moira cast a suspicious glance to Malcolm, who noticed and shook his head. Like he would have anyone abduct Oliver with his own son present.

_A cook carrying garbage comes out as Oliver is hit with a dart himself. "Hey!" the cook yells, only to be killed by one of the men with an automatic rifle. _

_In a flashback to the raft, Robert is handing Oliver a canteen. "Here, son. Drink." He helps Oliver drink the water._

_The crewman with them asks, "What the hell are you doing?! That's all we've got."  
_

_Robert replies, "If anybody's making it out of here, it's gonna be him!" He turns his attention back to Oliver, shouting over the storm. "I'm so sorry. I thought I'd have more time. I'm not the man you think I am. I didn't build our city. I failed it. And I wasn't the only one."_

Quentin frowned at this. He remembered Robert Queen as a philanthropist and one of the few billionaires he could respect. What did he mean that he had failed Starling City? Why did he say he wasn't the only one? Laurel and Tommy's mind were also whirring, examining this information. They couldn't fathom what Robert Queen meant.

Thea was confused and looked up to her mother. She saw her mother hide a grimace of guilt and felt a bit of suspicion tickling in her mind.

Moira, for her part, knew this was where Oliver would begin uncovering the truth. Would Robert tell him everything? Or would it be slowly pieced together?

Malcolm once again vowed to reserve judgment, see what Oliver did. With the younger man's skillset, he could be quite the asset for Merlyn's goal to bring Starling City back from the brink.

Roy remained unsurprised. He knew a lot of people who had lost their jobs when Robert Queen closed his factory; that was one reason among many that the Glades were so bad right now.

_Back in the present, Oliver awakens in a warehouse, where one of the men, in a red skull mask, is threatening him with a taser. "Mr. Queen. Mr. Queen! Did your father survive that accident?" Oliver remains silent. The man in the mask uses the taser on him briefly. "I ask the questions. You give me the answers. Did he make it to the island? Did he tell you anything?" The man hits Oliver with the taser again. Oliver takes a deep breath in and out, flexing his arms behind the chair. _

_Oliver looks up at the man in the mask. "Yes, he did."  
_

_The man nods. "What did he tell you, Mr. Queen?" _

_Oliver looks up at the man with anger evident on his face as he replies coldly, "He told me I'm gonna kill you."  
_

Shock ripped through most of the room. Quentin gaped at the younger man on the screen. He knew that Queen was probably going to become a vigilante, but he didn't think the kid actually was gonna kill people. But looking into the face of Oliver as glared at the man in the red skull mask, he knew the Queen scion was all too willing to do that. That, over anything, made Quentin question _why_ he worked with Queen.

Malcolm also felt a bit of shock, but it was almost instantly overtaken with a sense of pride towards Oliver. Whatever had happened to him, he had come through it with a vein of steel going through him and a conviction to take down those who were poisoning the city. Malcolm leaned forward to see how skilled Oliver was in hand-to-hand combat, which had several people giving him suspicious looks.

_The men laugh. The one interrogating him says, "You're delusional. You're zip-cuffed to that chair."  
_

_Oliver displays his newly-freed hands, causing the men to fall silent. "Not anymore." Oliver fights with the men, killing them. _

Moira had a hand to her mouth, shocked at her son's brutality; Tommy was likewise shocked, but then he looked over at his father. Malcolm was grinning as he watched the screen. Tommy's expression became somewhat bitter. _Of course he's happy to see Oliver doing that,_ he thought. _He always took an interest in Oliver._

_One of the men flees, and Oliver checks on Tommy before giving chase. As Oliver runs off, Tommy's eyes open. _

_Oliver chases the man across the rooftops of the warehouses and into another building, where he uses a chain to swing in front of the man and disarm him before putting him in a backwards headlock. "You killed that man," Oliver says.  
_

"_You don't have to do this," the thug says desperately.  
_

"_Yes, I do," Oliver replies, almost dispassionately. "Nobody can know my secret." He breaks the man's neck.  
_

Malcolm gave a nod of approval, which once more earned him suspicious looks. Quentin said, "What's with the nods, Merlyn?"

Malcolm eyed the detective before, with a hint of condescension, he replied, "Nothing that concerns you. After all, the SCPD couldn't find the man who killed my wife. I feel no need to give you any details about my personal life and views."

Moira could tell that Malcolm was very impressed with Oliver's brutality, and she felt a chill go up her spine. If Malcolm recruited Oliver for the Undertaking. . . .

_At the Queen Mansion, Oliver is speaking with Detectives Lance and Hilton. "So that's your story," Lance says skeptically. "A guy in a green hood flew in and single-handedly took out 3 armed kidnappers. I mean, who is he? Why would he do that?" _

"_I don't know," Oliver says abruptly, looking at Quentin with a thin-lipped half-smile. "Find him and you can ask."  
_

"_Yeah," Quentin says before turning to look at Tommy. "What about you? You see the hood guy? I saw. . . ." Tommy glances at Oliver for a moment before continuing, "Just movement. Everything blurry. I was kind of out of it."  
_

"_Yeah," Quentin says again. "It's funny, isn't it? One day back, and already somebody's gunning for you. Aren't you popular?" _

_Moira, looking a mixture of disapproving and startled, asks, "Were you able to identify the men?" _

_Hilton says, "Scrubbed identities, untraceable weapons. These were pros."  
_

"_Yeah," Quentin again says. "Well, they probably figured you'd pay a king's ransom to get your boy back or a Queen's ransom, as it were. After all, a parent would do anything to keep their child safe."  
_

_Moira shakes her head as she says, "I don't find your tone appropriate, Detective."  
_

_Walter, sensing danger, says, "If Oliver can think of anything else, he'll be in touch. Thank you, gentlemen, for coming."  
_

_Quentin looks at Oliver for a moment and says, "Your luck never seems to run out, does it?" He leaves with Hilton. _

_Oliver, in his room, is researching Adam Hunt. _

Malcolm's grin became shark-like. He hated Hunt; he had used him, and only let him live because of the power vacuum it could cause. But if Oliver took down Hunt, it would allow him to see the type of power vacuum and adjust his plans accordingly.

_In front of him is the notebook with the List. Raisa enters with a tray of food. Oliver closes out his Internet browser. _

"_You are different," Raisa says as she brings the tray in. "Not like you to read a book."  
_

_Oliver closes the notebook and says, "I missed you, Raisa."  
_

"_No kitchen on the island," she teases slightly.  
_

"_No," Oliver replies. "No friends either."  
_

"_Hey." He helps her with the tray. "Thank you." He sets the tray down, then turns to look at her. "Do I really seem different?" _

"_No," Raisa says. "You're still a good boy."  
_

"_Oh, I think we both know I wasn't."  
_

"_But a good heart," Raisa replies.  
_

"_I hope so," Oliver says. "I want to be the person you always told me I could be."_

_The next morning, Oliver exits the manor and is stopped by Moira approaching him. "Oliver, I want to introduce you to someone." Oliver stops and she gestures to an African-American man in a suit, standing at parade rest. "This is John Diggle. He'll be accompanying you from now on."  
_

_Oliver, looking a little peeved, replies, "I don't need a babysitter."  
_

_Walter, standing near Moira, puts a hand on her arm and says, "Darling, Oliver's a grown man. And if he doesn't feel he needs armed protection" _

_Moira nods, saying, "I understand, but this is something I need." Oliver nods.  
_

_In the car, Oliver is in the backseat as he and Diggle drive through Starling City. "So, what do I call you?" _

"_Diggle's good. Dig if you want."  
_

"_You're ex-military?"_

"_Yes, sir. 105__th__ Airborne of Kandahar, retired. Been in the private sector a little more than four years now. I don't want there to be any confusion, Mr. Queen.  
My ability to keep you from harm will outweigh your comfort. Do we have an agreement? Sir?" The sound of the car door opening and closing. Diggle turns and sees an empty seat. "Sir!" He steps on the breaks. He gets out to look around, finds no sign of Oliver. _

There were some chuckles, as everyone bar Roy knew that Oliver would've done something even without all the training. He hated being babied. Roy, for his part, was amused at the pissed off face of Mr. Diggle as he realized he'd only had his client for a few minutes and was already having to search for him.

_Oliver walks through the Glades, a backback on one shoulder and carrying a duffelbag. He throws both over the fence of the steel mill and swings himself over moments later. He enters the steel mill. "The abduction was unexpected. It forced me to move up my plans, but what I told the police was true." Oliver has picked up a pamphlet with his father's image on it. "The man in the green hood was there in that warehouse, and he's just beginning." _

_Oliver sets up the lair, forges arrows, and makes sure his aim is still true before beginning to research Adam Hunt, using the Internet and news footage. "Adam Hunt; his crimes go deeper than fraud and theft, but he's been able to bully, bribe, or kill anyone who's gotten into his way. He hasn't met me yet." Oliver opens the box from the Island and pulls out the green hood and the bow.  
_

Malcolm once again leaned forward. There were less comments from the group now as they were about to see exactly how much Oliver had changed.

_In a parking structure, Hunt is with two bodyguards and his attorney. "You remind Grell, I put him on the bench, I can take him off. I will turn him into a cautionary tale."_

"Yes, Mr. Hunt," the lawyer replies.  


"_And this attorney Laurel Lance?" Hunt continues, looking at the man briefly. "You said she wasn't gonna be a problem anymore. I told you to fix that situation. Why are you still here?" The lawyer leaves. _

_A moment later, the whistling of an arrow is followed by one of the lights shattering. Another arrow whistles, and one of the bodyguards goes down with a cry. The other grabs Hunt and pushes him towards the car. "Get in the car!"_

_Hunt does as the man tells him while the bodyguard fires his weapon in the direction of the shattered light. "Hey," Oliver says from behind the man, who turns. "You missed." _

_Inside the car, Hunt can hear arrows firing and his bodyguard crying out. The next moment, he is pulled from the car. "What? What?" He cries out as he sees Oliver, in Hood gear, atop the car, arrow readied in the bow and pointed at him. "Just, just tell me what you want."  
_

_Oliver jumps off the car and grabs Hunt, dragging him to his feet. "You're gonna transfer $40 million into Starling City bank account 1141 by 10 P.M. tomorrow night," Oliver tells him.  
_

"_Or what?" Hunt asks with faux-bravado. _

"_Or I'm gonna take it, and you won't like how," Oliver replies, before turning and beginning to leave.  
_

_Hunt, gaining mild courage at Oliver's departure, yells, "If I see you again, you're dead!" Oliver turns and fires another arrow, which goes through the back window of Hunt's car. _

"An interesting tactic," Malcolm mused. "Whether it works, we will see." More suspicious looks.

Roy, on the other hand, was beginning to feel a bit of excitement. _Finally_, someone was willing to take on the more powerful of the criminal and corrupt in the Glades. He hoped that Queen would let him help, at some point. Roy knew he was really only good for taking a beating, at the moment, but if Queen could help him train. . . . they could save the Glades.

_The next day, Hunt is in his office, speaking with Quentin and Hilton. "He was wearing a hood, a green hood, and he had a bow and arrow." Quentin and Hilton exchange looks and Hunt notices. "What, you don't believe me? That maniac put two of my men in the hospital." He hands an arrow over to the detectives.  
_

_Quentin, examining the arrow, says, "Well, thanks for your statement. We'll put out an APB on. . . . Robin Hood?"  
_

There were some definite snickers at Quentin's sarcasm.

"_Hey, pal," Hunt replies, tone gaining a hint of arrogance. "I'm not some grocer who got taken for his register. I go to the front of the he said he would be back here by 10 P.M. Make sure you're here first. You can coordinate with Mr. Drakon, my new head of security." Hunt points to the man, who Hilton and Quentin look at.  
_

"_All right," says Hilton before they leave, Quentin muttering, "Well, uh, thanks for your time," as they do so.  
_

_As they get in the elevator, Hilton says, "It looks like Queen was telling the truth."  
_

"_Yeah," Quentin replies. "Well, there's a first time for everything. This hooded guy comes looking for trouble, he'll find it."  
_

_At the Queen Mansion that evening, Oliver gets in the car to find Diggle already in the backseat waiting for him. "Put on your seat belt, sir. Wouldn't want you to miss your party."  
_

_The party is in full swing as Oliver descends the stairs, loud music and yelling of excited partiers filling the air. Tommy comes up to where Oliver is standing on the steps and motions for the D.J. to stop the music before yelling out, "Everybody, hey! Man of the hour!" Cheers raise up as the two men reach the bottom of the stairs. "Whoo! And, ladies, please give this man a proper homecoming." Two women come up at Tommy's gesture, and Oliver takes each of them on his arm as 'We are the Champions' plays. He ascends the steps and yells out with enthusiasm, "Thank you very much, everybody!" _

_Tommy, a glass in hand, reaches up with it, saying, "Ollie, Ollie, Ollie, Ollie."  
Oliver takes the glass and downs it before yelling out, "I missed Tequila!" The party starts up again at that. _

_At Hunt's offices, bodyguards are prepping with automatic weapons and Mr. Drakon is looking out the window at the building across the street. Hunt comes up to him and demands to know, "What the hell's going on out there?" _

"_It's across the street," Drakon replies. "Party for the guy that got rescued off that island: Oliver Queen."  
_

Malcolm smirked. Oliver was showing a great deal of strategic thinking. It would be interesting to see where got that from.

_At the party, Tommy notices Diggle eying Oliver and says, "Hey. Does he wipe for you, too?" He takes Oliver by the arm and swings him to face a trio of dancing girls as he says, "Now by my rough estimate, you have not had sex in 1,839 days." Oliver grimaces slightly. "As your wingman, I highly recommend Carmen Golden."  
_

"_Which one is she?" Oliver asks. _

"_The one who looks like the chick from Twilight."  
_

"_What's Twilight?"  
_

"_You're so better off not knowing."  
_

"Definitely," Thea said, drawing attention. She scoffed, "What, because I'm a teenage girl I'm supposed to fall in love with the sparkly vampires? I prefer them to be the kind that they were originally if at all, thank you very much."

Malcolm grinned at that. Thea had the same steel her mother had, and didn't mind sharing her opinion of people.

_Oliver notices Thea and her friends buying drugs, and narrows his eyes. "Back in a minute," he tells Tommy and goes to Thea.  
_

_Thea, looking happy, says, "Ollie, hey! This party is sick."  
_

"Uh-oh," Tommy said. He recognized the look on Oliver's face. Laurel did too, and she sent a smirk at Thea, who grimaced. Malcolm was intrigued. It appeared Oliver had a strength to him even before the island, but Malcolm hadn't seen it, if the glances the three closest to him at the time were giving each other was any indication.

"_Who let you in here?" Oliver asks. _

_Thea, looking startled, says, "I believe it was somebody who said, 'Right this way, Miss Queen'."  
_

"_Well, you shouldn't be here," Oliver replies.  
_

"_I'm not 12 anymore."  
_

"_No. You're 17."  
_

_Thea, looking a bit angry now, says, "Ollie, I love you, but you can't come back here and judge me, especially for being just like you."  
_

"_I know that it couldn't have been easy for you when I was away-" _

"_Away? No. You died. My brother and my father died. I went to your funerals."  
_

"_I know."  
_

"_No, you don't," Thea replies, beginning to get more emotional. "Mom had Walter, and I had no one. You guys all act like its cool; let's forget about the last 5 years. Well, I can't. For me, it's kind of permanently in there, so I'm sorry if I turned out some major disappointment, but this me is the best I could do with what I had to work with." Thea turns to her friends. "Let's bounce."  
_

_As Thea and her friends move away, one of them asks, "You have the fun dip?" _

"_Yeah," Thea replies. "It's right. . . ." She doesn't find it in her purse. "No. I-I must have dropped it." Several feet away, Oliver is throwing the drugs in the trashcan and looks up to see Diggle, who gives an approving sort of look.  
_

"Good," Moira said firmly. She gave her daughter a beady look. "Remember, Thea. Next time this happens. . . ." Thea grimaced.

_Oliver turns and runs into Laurel. "Oh! Oh."  
_

"_You're here," Oliver says, looking surprised.  
_

"_Tommy," Laurel says. "He made the point that we have too many years between us to leave things the way we left them." Laurel looks around. "Is there someplace quieter that we could go?" _

"_Yeah," Oliver says, and the two walk away. Tommy watches them go.  
_

_Now away from the party, Laurel turns to Oliver and says, "I'm sorry about saying that you should have been the one who died. That was wrong."  
_

"_If I could trade places with her, I would," Oliver tells her.  
_

"_About Sara," Laurel says. "There's something that I've been afraid to ask, but I need to know."  
_

"_Okay."  
_

"_When she died. . . . Did she suffer?" _

_Oliver has another flashback of Sara being sucked out of the Gambit before he says, "No."  
_

Laurel said, "Even though I know she's alive now, I have to say, I'm glad Oliver lied to me there. I don't think I could've handled knowing that he thought she suffered." Quentin nodded in agreement.

"_I think about her every day."  
_

"_Me, too."  
_

"_I guess we still have one thing in common then," Laurel says. She waits a moment, then, almost hesitantly, continues, "I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but If you need someone to talk to about what happened to you, I'm here." Oliver's phone buzzes. He looks at it to see it is now 10 P.M. and Hunt has not transferred the funds. Laurel notices the change in his demeanor. "Something wrong?" _

"_I asked somebody to do something," Oliver says. "They didn't do it." He smiles at her. "Laurel." A moment later, his expression changes, as though he's preparing to do something. "You always saw the best in me. Right now, that's what you're doing, looking at me, and you're wondering if that island changed me somehow, if it made me a better person. It didn't. Stay away from me." He begins stepping away from her, moving backwards. "Otherwise I'm just gonna hurt you again, but this time, it will be worse." He changes to show a flippant playboy. "Gotta roll. I got 5 years of debauchery to catch up on!" _

Laurel sighed and said, "Whoever trained him did a good job. That is exactly what I would think the Ollie we knew before the Island would say if he didn't have a social filter, the kind that would atrophy after five years on an island."

"Agreed," Malcolm said. "Oliver knows us all very well. He will use whatever mask best suits him in a particular scenario. If we want to help him become the Oliver he once was, or as close as we can, then we need to let him know when he returns that we know. We can do it outright. . . . or we can make subtle gestures. Like covering for him; not getting him a bodyguard; things like that."

Moira, despite not wanting to agree with Malcolm, nodded. "Malcolm is right," she said. "Oliver will need our help. . . . but he probably won't accept it unless we make it clear he won't be allowed to duck away from us."

_Laurel, looking disappointed, says, "You know what, Oliver? You're wrong. That island did change you. At least now you're honest."  
_

_Laurel walks away, and Oliver watches her go. _

_Oliver, now in the kitchens, is walking to get away from the party and finds Diggle waiting. "Something I can help you with, sir?" _

"_I just wanted a second to myself," Oliver says.  
_

_Diggle says, "I would believe you, Mr. Queen, if you weren't so full of crap." He points to the door near him. "Party's this way." _

_Oliver tries the door. "It's locked." Diggle moves to open the door himself. Oliver puts him in a headlock and uses it to knock him out. _

_In Hunt's office, Drakon is speaking with his men. "You two cover the elevator." He points to other men as the two mentioned move to do as he says. "Hang back and be ready. Stay in the corners and stay alert."  
_

_Drakon walks up to Hunt, who's standing by the window looking down at the party. "It's past 10:00. He's never getting in here." Outside, unseen by the two men at the window, an arrow with a zip-line attached burrows itself into the side of the building.  
_

"Setting up his entry, or his escape?" Malcolm murmured.

_Down on the ground, the two detectives are looking around, and speak to one another. "All's clear."  
_

"_Yeah."  
_

_In the building, the lights go out. In the hallway outside Hunt's office, the elevator dings. The men in the hall open fire, bullets punching through the elevator doors and peppering the wall surrounding the elevator. The door opens to reveal. . . . nothing. The men all look at one another. In that moment, Oliver attacks, bringing the men down with ruthless efficiency. _

"Damn, Ollie's bad-ass," Thea said. "I think I could get some pointers from him." Malcolm nodded in agreement (not for himself, of course, but for Thea).

_In the office, the firing of weapons and cries of pain can be heard. Drakon and a couple men ready their weapons as Hunt takes cover. A man smashes through the glass door and Drakon's men open fire, only to realize it's one of their own. Two arrows soar in, killing Drakon's men. Oliver enters, avoiding Drakon's fire and knocks the man out before firing an arrow past Hunt, who looks at it then turns to face Oliver. "You missed."  
_

"_Really?" Oliver replies, before he is attacked by Drakon. _

_Hunt runs out of the room as the two men fight, yelling into a walkie, "He's here!" _

_Down on the ground, Quentin and his men move in. "All units, converge! All units, converge!" _

_In the office, Oliver fights with Drakon. He takes a running leap to get behind the desk, turning and throwing an arrow at Drakon as the man fires at Oliver. Oliver hits the ground and lays still after a grunt of pain. Outside the office, the police arrive and move forward. Oliver wakes up, and notices the police closing in. He fires a couple arrows past them without hitting any of them. The police stop to take cover. "Lay down your weapons, or we will open fire! I repeat, lay down your weapons."  
_

_Oliver ignores the order and heads for the window. The police open fire, and Oliver dives out the window. Quentin and Hilton rush to the window in time to see Oliver zip-line down to the building across the street. "Tell me you saw that," Hilton says.  
_

Chuckles were heard. It truly was _unusual_ for a 'criminal' to use archaic weaponry. Malcolm's own time as a hooded vigilante had not been with the bow, but simply with his martial skills.

_Across the street, the police arrive. "Ok. Let's go. Move." Quentin reaches the DJ. "Cut it." The music stops as Quentin begins giving orders again. "Search the building roof to basement. Find him!" Quentin turns to the crowd at large. "Starling City police! The party's over, kids." Groans and insults can be heard as Quentin comes face-to-face with Tommy. "Oh, Mr. Merlyn." Tommy smiles at the man cockily. "Imagine my shock at finding you here. Did you roofie anyone special tonight, huh?" _

"While my son is many things, Detective," Malcolm said coldly, "he is not a rapist."

"Keep telling yourself that, Merlyn," Quentin returned. "Your son is worse than Queen ever was, which is why I don't like him sniffing around my daughter." (1)

_Oliver comes from out of the crowd and said, "Detective! This is a private party."  
_

"_Yeah? Well, there was an incident at Adam Hunt's building tonight. You know anything about that?" _

"_Who's Adam Hunt?" Oliver asks, doing a very good job of appearing confused as hell. _

"_He's a millionaire bottom feeder, and I'm kind of surprised you aren't friends."  
_

"_I've been out of town for. . . . a while," Oliver says, and Tommy turns from listening to Oliver to smile the same cocky smile at Quentin.  
_

Tommy grinned here, too. Even if Oliver _was_ different, there was still the side of him that Tommy could connect to. It would definitely be good to have him back as a wingman. . . . especially if they ended up in a fight.

_Quentin, scowling, says, "Yeah. Well, he just got attacked by the guy with the hood, the guy that saved your ass the other day."  
_

"_The hood guy? You didn't find him? I'm gonna offer a reward." Oliver turns to the crowd at large and yells out, "Hey, everybody. 2 million dollars to anybody that can find a nut bar in a green hood." Cheers erupt as Oliver turns back to Quentin.  
_

Quentin shook his head in disbelief. Queen was a certified piece of work.

_As the cheers and party begin around them again, Quentin closes the distance between he and Oliver. "Did you even try to save her?" Hilton begins to try and pull Quentin away from the confrontation. "Did you even try to save my daughter?" _

"_Sara wouldn't want this," Hilton says, continuing to pull Quentin away with words of warning. Quentin reluctantly follows. _

_Oliver gets up on stage. "It's way too quiet in here! This is a party!" The party gets back in full swing as Oliver steps down from the stage. _

_Tommy, drink in hand, comes up. "Some coincidence, I mean, you asking to have your party here, and Hunt getting robbed right next door and by the same guy who rescued us at the warehouse."  
_

_Oliver, smiling but his tone close to threatening, says, "If I were you, Tommy, I'd just be glad you're alive."  
_

Tommy froze, staring at the screen. The entire room was likewise amazed, and Moira noticed Malcolm's hands curl into fists. That Oliver could threaten his best friend so casually made the Island seem all the more terrifying. Tommy articulated the very question on-screen that those watching were all wondering.

_Tommy, looking startled, says, "What happened to you on that island?" _

"_A lot."_

_The next day, at Hunt's office, repairmen are working on the window while Hunt is shouting on the phone. "What the hell are you talking about? $40 million doesn't just up and vanish! Untraceable?! It is $40 million! Find it!" Hunt throws the phone on the desk and sits in his chair. "How did he do it?" Sticking out of the wall is Oliver's arrow, which has a wireless transmitter on it. _

_In Oliver's lair, Oliver is watching as the funds are transferred into various accounts. He opens the notebook with the List in it and crosses off Adam Hunt's name. _

Malcolm calmed at this and let out a laugh. "Excellent," he said. Seeing the expressions of the others (primarily confused) he said, "Don't you see? If Oliver had killed Hunt like he did the other men, it would have left a power vacuum that would have caused more chaos in the streets. Leaving Hunt alive, but taking his money, and therefore his power, has left him vulnerable. Hunt will have to work for another crime boss in order to have any power. While one crime lord may usurp it, there won't be a power struggle that could turn the Glades into a warzone."

Everyone could tell that Malcolm had thought about these sorts of things before, but most brushed it off to the fact that his wife had died in the Glades. If anyone would have spent the time to learn about the criminal elements in the Glades and how it worked, it would be one who had suffered because of it. Of course, Malcolm remembered now where he remembered the name Roy Harper. The boy in this room was the son of the man who had killed Rebecca. Malcolm had taken great pleasure in killing Roy Sr. before ensuring the body was never found. Acid was quite useful. . . .

_In a flashback to the raft, the crewman is dozing while Robert speaks quietly with Oliver. "There's not enough for all of us," Robert says. "Save your strength. You can survive this, make it home, make it better, right my wrongs; but you got to live through this first. You hear me, Ollie? You hear me, son?" _

"_Just rest, dad," Oliver says, eyelids fluttering.  
_

_Robert seems to come to a decision as shifts Oliver away from him. "No." He pulls a pistol out of his life vest and kills the crewman, startling Oliver, who scrambles to the other side of the life raft.  
_

"_Dad?!" _

_Robert looks at his son. "Survive," he says, before placing the pistol against his head and firing.  
_

"_No!" _

Thea turned into her mother's side, sobbing softly. Tommy and Malcolm both looked stricken at that. Tommy because Robert had been the father that Malcolm never was to Tommy, and Malcolm because even he regretted having to try and kill Robert. He had hoped, upon seeing Robert's survival of the sinking, that the man would be alive and he could have his friend and close ally back. With Robert and Oliver both onboard, the Undertaking would have operated smoothly, with Oliver taking part in Malcolm's clean-up operations and Robert greasing the wheels of his corporate empire. _Such a waste,_ Malcolm thought to himself. Still, not all hope was lost. Oliver was very similar to Malcolm in skillset and his desire for revenge against the corrupt and powerful; all Malcolm needed to do was aim the younger archer in another direction.

_At CNRI, Laurel is speaking with a client on the phone. "If, hypothetically, 50 thousand dollars magically appeared in your bank account, it might be best for you not to speak about it. To anyone. Ever." Laurel smiles at the reply and says, "God bless you, too."  
_

_Joanna comes up to Laurel's cubicle and says, "I just got a very grateful phone call from one of our clients against Adam Hunt."  
_

"_Me, too," Laurel says, before letting out an amazed, "Heh."  
_

"_It looks like Starling City has a guardian angel," Joanna says, before turning to look away from her. _

Malcolm smiled at this. Yes, if the Emerald Archer became a hero to the people of Starling, that would be a useful tool as the Undertaking moved forward.

_She turns back to Laurel. "By the way, your cute friend's here." Laurel, frowning, stands and looks towards where Joanna gestures, and sees Tommy smiling at her.  
_

_The two are walking down an alleyway. "You left the party pretty quick last night," Tommy says, "even after I made sure the bar was stocked with Pinot Noir."  
_

"_It wasn't really my scene," Laurel says.  
_

"_I thought maybe you and Oliver went mano-a-mano again. I saw you two head out," Tommy replies, a hint of jealousy in his wording.  
_

Laurel shook her head at her on-again/off-again's jealousy.

"_There's nothing between Oliver and I, not anymore," Laurel assures him.  
_

_Tommy gets Laurel to look at him and says, "Here I thought the only thing between you and Oliver was us."  
_

_Laurel turns to Tommy and says, "I wouldn't exactly characterize us as an "us," Tommy."  
_

"_Then what would you call it?" _

"_A lapse."  
_

"_That's quite a few lapses your place, my place, my place again." Tommy grins.  
_

_Laurel says fondly, "Oh, come on, Merlyn. We both know that you're not a one-girl type of guy."  
_

"_Depends on the girl," Tommy says, giving Laurel a look.  
_

"_I have to go back to work," Laurel says, beginning to walk away.  
_

"_Dinah Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world," Tommy says, still grinning.  
_

"_Hey," Laurel says, turning for a moment. "If I don't try and save it, who will?" Laurel continues walking away. Above them, Oliver is crouching in his Hood gear. _

"Well, I guess there's one other person in Starling doing that," Roy remarked with a hint of smart-ass in his tone. "Other than me, of course."

"Huh?" Laurel said, looking confused at the teen.

Roy gave her a grim smile. "As Mr. Queen has just given us some insight into this mentality, it shouldn't surprise you. But sometimes, to find justice, you have to go outside the law. I may not have ever taken down someone like Adam Hunt, but people who trod on those in the Glades eventually get a visit from me or someone like me."

"Great," Quentin muttered. "We've got _two_ vigilantes. . . . one a billionaire and another a gangbanger."

"_She says the island changed me. She has no idea how much." A flashback to the raft, with the island now in sight as Oliver stares towards it. "There are many more names on the List, those who rule my city through intimidation and fear. Every last one of them will wish I had died on that island."_

Once again, everyone felt a chill at Oliver's words, and could sense a change was coming to Starling as the Emerald Archer arrived. _  
_

_The back of a familiar mansion is shown as a man descends the stairs. "The police failed to identify the men I hired to kidnap Oliver, and they never will. Should we arrange another abduction?" _

_Moira turns to face the grounds and says, "No. There are other ways of finding out what my son knows."_

"What the hell?" Thea asked, turning to her mother. "Mom, why. . . .?"

Moira sighed and said, "There are things going on you simply cannot understand, Thea. Believe me when I say those men would have had orders to not kill either Oliver or Tommy. I would not have allowed it."

Thea was suspicious at this, and she wasn't the only one.

The door to the room opened, and Oliver appeared. "It's time," he said to Moira, who nodded. She gestured for Thea to stand. Oliver turned to the Merlyns. "Tommy, Malcolm, if you would please follow us?" Malcolm was surprised but stood. Tommy followed them as well, which left Roy Harper in the room with a detective and an attorney.

Roy muttered to himself, "Why do I get the feeling Oliver Queen doesn't like me very much?"

_**A/N: Hope everyone enjoyed this updated and expanded chapter. And can I say that this was one PAIN IN THE ASS to write? Together with the prologue, this story starts off with a WHOPPING 15,000 words. . . . **_

_**I cannot be sure if I will update once a week like I planned originally. But be assured, I WILL NOT ABANDON THIS STORY. **_

_**(1) Sorry I forgot to add this originally. I totally forgot about it. When Quentin says that bit in the series premiere, I always found it funny that people haven't quite caught it. As much as Quentin dislikes both Oliver and Tommy, he's only ever gone after them for things he believes they've done. I highly doubt he would say anything to Tommy like that without at least some evidence of it in the past. Considering his younger daughter attended one of Tommy's parties, and he busted it up, that might be where he got that particular idea. Tommy has a sort of redemptive storyline in Season 1, from douche bag to near-hero. **_


	3. Chapter 3: Honor Thy Father

_**A/N: Sorry, had a few hiccups along the way, and then I got distracted by the Arrow elements from Comic-Con. :D **_

Chapter Three:

Honor Thy Father

Malcolm took up a position in the rear of his son and the Queens as they followed the future Oliver towards the room where they would be having a private discussion. Malcolm had overheard Oliver's comment to Moira about how they needed to be here, and ever since, he had had his suspicions and kept a close eye on Thea. He suspected Oliver was well aware that he had been doing so, since the likelihood they were not being watched was low.

Oliver stopped at a door and bent down, allowing the door to scan his iris. Malcolm was surprised at that particular security measure; he himself used a thumb scanner to hide his alcove at Merlyn Global. Then again, Oliver and his allies appeared to be much more active, and the possibility of fingerprints being disfigured from combat was high even when wearing protective hand-gear. Malcolm stepped into the room and found a conference room of sorts. Oliver stepped into the room behind Malcolm and gestured to the table. "Please, take a seat," he told them softly.

As they all filtered into the room, another figure entered the room. This one was dressed in a similar outfit to the one Oliver wore, but with a few differences. A pouch held miniature arrows for throwing at his side, and the red leather was distinctive. Malcolm eyed the man and gave him a short nod, acknowledging the man as a security measure. Whatever this was, Oliver clearly expected some trouble to happen, and Malcolm suspected it was less because of Moira and Thea and more because of him.

Oliver took a seat at the head of the table, and both Moira and Malcolm were struck by how similar to Robert he looked then. "There are many secrets that came out over the first five years after I returned from the Island," he said quietly. "But one of them was not mine to tell, and by keeping it, I nearly destroyed the relationships I had with those closest to me. Mom; this is your secret. But we won't leave this room until you tell it." Despite the fact that it was spoken softly, every person in the room could hear the steel in his voice, the same steel Moira often used when dealing with Thea and, when he had been the same way, Oliver.

Moira sighed, and turned to her daughter. "Thea, I have kept a secret for several years, afraid of what might happen if it came out. I also did not want to ruin the image you had of Robert."

"Mom, what are you talking about?" Thea asked.

"Robert was. . . . not the most faithful of husbands," Moira said delicately. "If I had been any other woman, I might have struck out on my own spree of nights with others. But I remained faithful to him. . . . except for once." Moira met her daughter's shocked and hurt gaze as she continued, "I comforted a dear friend who had recently lost his wife, and who was feeling lost." Here, Moira turned her head to look directly into Malcolm's eyes, to show him she was telling the truth. "He then vanished for two years, dealing with his grief, and by the time he returned, Robert had already rejoined our family and you were his daughter. I could not tell my friend the truth, because I was ashamed of my own weakness."

Seeing Thea's stricken look, Moira hurried to continue. "I don't think of you as a mistake, Thea, far from it. You helped heal mine and Robert's marriage and you have always been a joy in my life, particularly after Oliver and Robert's. . . voyage." She couldn't say deaths, not right now, not after having seen Robert kill himself to give their son, her beautiful boy, a fighting chance to survive. "Malcolm is your biological father, Thea, but Robert did love you, and you were his daughter."

"Mom is right, Speedy," Oliver said quietly. "But there's something else. Dad knew."

"What?" Moira asked, turning to stare at her son.

"He knew that Malcolm was Thea's father," Oliver reiterated. "But he considered Thea his daughter and a blood test wasn't going to change that." Here, Oliver turned his gaze to Malcolm. "I decided to reveal this now because it came out during a very emotional time in my memories, and if there is one thing I noted in watching you all respond to just that first set of memories. . . it would have gone down similarly. Now you have time to. . . . digest the facts."

Malcolm stared at Oliver for a moment before turning to look at Tommy, because he had a suspicion that his son was going to have something to say. Tommy met his gaze and said, "You disapprove of me meeting _unattached_ women, but you slept with Mrs. Queen after Mom's _funeral_?" At Malcolm's slow nod, Tommy let out a shaky breath and said, "I will talk to you about this later. For now, I want to thank Oliver for telling us. It certainly explains why Thea and I have been so close."

"Yeah," Thea mumbled, blushing slightly. She couldn't believe she had mistook a familial connection, albeit an unconscious one, for a romantic crush. God, this was so embarrassing. She would freak out about her Mom and Mr. Mer- her father later, when she had time to scream and rage and swear up a storm. She looked across the table at her newly-found father, who gave her a small smile.

"You don't need to worry, Thea," Malcolm said quietly. "I won't push until you're ready. But when you are, we can talk."

"Thanks, er, Malcolm," Thea replied, going with something in between "Mr. Merlyn" and "Dad". Malcolm gave a slight nod to show he would accept that.

Oliver nodded to himself and said, "Alright. Roy here will show you back to the viewing room." There were a few startled looks even as Arsenal pulled down his hood and mask, and gave his former mentor an annoyed look. Oliver merely smirked back. "Roy, Malcolm figured it out the moment you stepped foot in the room. I was only letting everyone else in on the secret."

"Says the man who threatened to kill me if I ever let a certain individual find out who I was and who you were," Arsenal replied. Despite the shock the words caused, those in the room did note the good humor in which the line was delivered. "Mrs. Queen, Merlyns, Thea, follow me."

The group followed him back, but Malcolm gave the red-hooded figure a narrow-eyed look from behind. Arsenal had said Thea's name with too much familiarity for the newly-realized father to be comfortable with. Especially since in the end, Harper _was_ the son of the man who killed his wife. Familiarity with his _daughter_ would not be tolerated, especially from a street thug.

Arsenal led the group back to the viewing room, where they retook their seats. Laurel, ever inquisitive, asked, "What was that about?"

Tommy gave her an inscrutable look and said, "I'll tell you later. I'm still digesting it myself." When Laurel looked ready to push it, Tommy raised a hand and used the voice his father often used when dealing with obstinate employees. "No, Laurel. I'll tell you when I'm ready unless someone else decides to first." Malcolm gave a small, approving nod to his son. It appeared that a good sharp shock was, indeed, what was needed to make Tommy grow up. Perhaps, by the end of this viewing, Malcolm wouldn't _have_ to take away Tommy's trust fund. But they would cross that particular bridge when they came to it. For now. . . . it was time to begin the next sequence of memories.

Thea took charge of the controls, and settled herself beside her mother again, trying not to think about the fact that she was with both her parents right now, as Malcolm had retaken his seat beside her.

_Oliver, in Hood gear, is standing on a rooftop, the sound of a chopper moving away. "Who's that? Where'd he come from? What's going on here?" Men move forward and engage Oliver, who fights them off with martial arts and fires a few arrows. "Get the chopper back now. Who's is guy?" Oliver fights through the final two men and approaches his target, Marrcus Redman. "Whoa, whoa! Easy, wait, wait!" Oliver grabs the man and throws him over the side onto a lower portion of the roof. Redman impacts with an air conditioning unit, the grill of which Oliver destroys. "No, please. . ." _

_Oliver puts the man's face close to the cycling fans. "Marcus Redman, you failed this city."_

"_Please, don't! Please! Don't!" _

"_Cell phone, inside pocket, call your partner. Tell him to give those pensioners back their money. Do it now."  
_

Laurel grinned at seeing this new side of Oliver. She knew about Marcus Redman, of course, and his tendency to cheat people out of their funds. She was glad to see that Oliver had managed to handle that particular fight without killing the target; maybe he wasn't as much of a killer as people thought. His fight with Drakon had been brutal, yes, but it had also been necessary since Drakon himself was fighting to kill.

"_Okay." Oliver lets the man go and walks away. Shifting to him entering the manor the next morning, approaching his family who are watching the news report. "Over the past 15 years, Mr. Redman has withdrawn more than $30 million from the plan's account. Mr. Redman claims refunding the Halcyon Pension Plan has always been his intent." An image of the sketch drawing of Oliver's Hood persona pops up on the screen. "But sources say Redman was coerced by the vigilante."  
_

_Oliver gestures to the screen. "This guy gets more air-time than the Kardashians." _

"_Five years on an island and you still know who they are," Thea replies.  
_

"_I've been catching up," Oliver replies. "It's nice to see how much our culture has improved while I was away." There's just the tiniest hint of sarcasm in this reply.  
_

Thea snickered at her brother's comment. Somewhere along the line, Oliver had picked up a rather sardonic sense of humor, fairly subtle but biting.

"_But the city used to be different. People used to feel safe," Moira points out from where she's sitting.  
_

"_Aw, what's the matter, mom?" The asks turning to look at Moira. "Afraid we're gonna be next?" _

Malcolm looked amused for a moment. Quentin, seeing this, asked, "Got something to say, Merlyn?"

Malcolm glanced over at the Detective and said, "Oh, I just find it amusing that Oliver is listening to this and not saying anything. It shows he has learned a great deal of restraint for someone whose social filter has supposedly atrophied." He could tell Oliver had a lot more control over his temper and his words than was being revealed. He knew Oliver well enough to know that if he had heard that in the past, he would've said something to contradict his mother and thus unveil his secret.

_Walter turns to Oliver and asks, "Do you have any questions about today, Oliver? It's a simple proof-of-life declaration. Just read out a brief, prepared statement to the judge, and then your death-in-absentia judgment will be voided."  
_

"_It's fine, Walter, I've been in a courtroom before," Oliver says, as Tommy comes up behind him. _

_"Four times by my estimate," Tommy adds helpfully. "You know, there was the DUI, the assault on that paparazzi douchebag, stealing that taxi, which was just awesome, by the way, and who could forget peeing on the cop?" _

Quentin scowled at this reminder. He and his partner at the time had been the ones to stumble on the Queen and Merlyn scions in their drunken haze and Quentin had been 'mistaken' for a tree. Quentin didn't believe that for a second, mainly because Queen always had a tendency to do what he could to needle the detective.

"_I wish everyone would," Moira replies, somewhat stiffly. _

"_I'd hang, but we're headed to court," Oliver tells Tommy.  
_

"_I know, that's why I'm here. My best friend is getting legally resurrected, I wouldn't miss this for the world." _

"_Right. Okay." Oliver turns to Thea. "What about you?" _

_Thea walks by with a bit of a snooty attitude likely left over from their interactions thus far. "Oh, I think the first four times of you in court was enough for me."  
_

Thea winced slightly at her attitude. Seeing things like this from an outside perspective sure did a number on you.

Moira noticed Thea's wince and had to smile. Maybe by the time they were done with this viewing, Thea would be able to pull away from her habits on her own. Still, Moira would keep an extra-close eye on her daughter when they returned to their own time. She also suspected Malcolm may become a more frequent visitor by that point.

"_Fair enough," Oliver says as Thea walks away.  
_

_Diggle enters. "Mrs. Queen? Car's ready."_

At the courthouse, Oliver is swarmed by reporters. "Are you going to testify as to what happened when the yacht sank? Are you going to talk about the boat crash? Mr. Queen, did you see Sara Lance die?" 

Quentin and Laurel winced, and Quentin had a brief moment where he wanted Queen to lose his composure and deck the reporter who had shouted that last question.

_A flashback intercedes as Oliver's testimony unfolds. "There was a storm. The boat went down. I was the only survivor. My father didn't make it. I almost died, I thought that I had, because I spent so many days on that life raft before I saw the island. When I reached it, I knew I knew that I was gonna have to live for both of us. And in those five years, it was that one thought that kept me going."  
_

_The lawyer says, "Your honor, we move to vitiate the death-in-absentia filed after Oliver's disappearance at sea aboard the Queen's gamut five years ago. Unfortunately we will not be requesting that the declaration of death filed for the petitioner's father, Robert Queen, be rescinded. The Queen family is only entitled to one miracle, I'm afraid."  
_

_Outside the courtroom, Moira says, "Now, onto the offices. Everyone is waiting to meet you there."  
_

_Oliver stops on the stairs and says, "Uh, mom, that was a little bit heavier than I was expecting it to be. Can we do that tomorrow? Please?" _

Malcolm gave Moira a significant look and she nodded warily, accepting the silent rebuke. It appeared that Oliver was not the only one who was attempting to make it appear as though nothing had changed, and in doing so, she was pushing her son in a direction that he wasn't comfortable with.

_Moira looks at Walter for a moment before turning back and saying, "Of course."  
_

"_Thank you."  
_

_As Oliver and Tommy part ways with Moira and Walter, Tommy says, "Last week, you couldn't wait to get to the company."  
_

"_Tommy, I'd just spent five years away from civilization. I wasn't exactly thinking straight." The two of them run into Laurel, Joanna, and their new client. "I. . . hi."  
_

Thea smirked and coughed, "Sexual tension." Tommy frowned at this while Laurel flushed. Quentin's face was an amusing expression, as it was part irritation, part sour anticipation, and part cynical amusement at the younger Merlyn male's predicament.

"_What are you doing here?" Laurel asks. _

"_Oh, they were bringing me back from the dead. Legally speaking. What are you doing here?" _

"_My job."  
_

"_Right."  
_

Laurel glanced over at Thea, who was smirking at her, and narrowed her eyes. The girl mimed zipping her lips shut, and Laurel shook her head.

_Joanna cuts in. "More like the D.A.'s."  
_

_Oliver shakes Joanna's hand then does the same with the new client. "Hi, Oliver Queen."  
_

"_Emily Nocenti."  
_

_Laurel turns to Emily and says, "Oliver just got back from five years on an uncharted island. Before that, he was cheating on me with my sister. He was with her when she last week, he told me to stay away from him." She gives Oliver a Look. "It was really good advice." She moves past Tommy and Oliver with an, "Excuse me."  
_

"Ouch," Roy said drily, which earned him a Look of his own from Laurel. Malcolm, Moira, Thea, and Tommy all glanced over at the young man who they now knew became Oliver's apprentice. It was interesting to see how the younger man had a cynically-amused outlook on life, almost a mirror image of the Oliver they were currently seeing portrayed. Roy appeared unfazed by Laurel's Look, which impressed Tommy and even Malcolm, who had seen that look directed at both his son and Oliver in the past.

"_It was nice to meet you," Oliver says to Emily.  
_

"_Yeah."  
_

"_Come on, buddy, shake it off. Let's go."  
_

_Outside the vultures, ahem, reporters are circling Martin Somers. "Mr. Somers! Mr. Somers! What do you have to say about the accusations made by Laurel Lance?" _

"No," Quentin said sharply. Laurel turned to him, a resigned but bullheaded expression on her face. "You are not going after Martin Somers, Laurel! The man is mobbed up to the gills, with the _TRIADS_ of all things!"

Laurel scowled at her father and said, "You're the one who always taught me to do what was right and never take the easy road because that can lead to a guilty conscience. If the police and D.A. would do their job, I wouldn't have to do it for them, and apparently neither would Oliver! He has an entire notebook of underworld bosses, but the SCPD can hardly handle _one_ of them!"

Quentin flinched back as though struck. He knew his oldest daughter believed strongly in justice, but that she also was still in the mindset that the law equated justice. As much as he hated to think it (and he would never say it!), Queen _was_ doing something good for the city by crippling men like Adam Hunt and Marcus Redman.

Malcolm was beginning to see what had attracted not only Oliver, but his son as well, to Ms. Lance.

Roy hid a grin at the lawyer verbally stripping the flesh off her father. The entire time the rest had been gone, the room had had an awkward silence since Roy was being glared at by Quentin and looking supremely unconcerned, while Laurel alternated between glancing worriedly at the door and shaking her head at the two men.

"_I don't know what I've done to earn this witch-hunt from Ms. Lance and her bosses at the CNRI. But I can tell you this. I am an honest businessman, and I will fight this slander to my last dime and breath. That's all I have to say, thank you." Somers walks away.  
_

_The vultures spot Oliver. "Oh, there's Mr. Queen. Mr. Queen, do you want to follow up? What happened in there, sir? Tell us what happened inside, Mr. Queen. _

"_Step back, everybody, please." The reporters ignore Diggle, continuing to pepper Oliver with questions as Oliver gets into the car. "Everybody, step back." One of the reporters shoves a camera in Diggle's face. "Hey man, I'll make you swallow that Nikon. Back!" As Tommy and Diggle move to get in, the car screeches away. _

Despite the fact that he's also stranded there on-screen, Tommy snickered at the fact that Oliver had once again ditched his bodyguard.

"_This happens to you a lot, doesn't it?" Tommy asks Diggle, who's looking a little peeved to say the least. _

_In the courtroom, Laurel is presenting her opening arguments. "How much is a life worth? A life of a man, a good man, a stevedore on the docks of the city in which we live. A father. A man with a daughter. The plaintiff will prove by a preponderance of evidence that Victor Nocenti learned that his boss, that man sitting right there, Martin Somers, was taking bribes from the Chinese triads to smuggle drugs into our city. And when Victor Nocenti threatened to tell the police, Martin Somers had him killed." The death of Victor Noceni is shown. "Mr. Somers is very well-connected, and has friends in the district attorney's office. Which is why, if Emily Nocenti is to get justice for her father's death, if Martin Somers is to get justice for his crimes, then someone is going to have to do it for them."_

"Something tells me it won't be the courts that bring Mr. Somers to justice," Malcolm said, looking amused again. The reason for his amusement was clear when everyone saw he flashed a look at Quentin Lance, and realized that _Malcolm_, of all people, was needling the Detective. Then again, Malcolm did have a reason to find Oliver's actions as a good thing, in the minds of those watching who were unaware of Malcolm's rather insane plans for the city. That Quentin Lance had a stick up his ass about the law and keeping to it even when it protected criminals was likely a bone of contention for the older Merlyn. _  
_

_Oliver is in his lair, researching Somers. "Martin Somers. Laurel's targeted the worst of Starling City, so it's no surprise his name is on my father's list. The city's police and the D.A. can't stop him; or won't. _

Quentin winced at Queen's insightful thoughts on the issue, and Malcolm smirked at the detective again before turning back to the screen.

_Laurel thinks she's the only one willing to bring him to justice. She's wrong."  
_

Laurel allowed the grin that was working its way onto her face to show. She still wasn't sure about Oliver's approach to this, but she also couldn't deny he got results. She just wished he would tell her; she would help him, even if it was primarily by prosecuting those he captured. She knew she could fight, but not as well as Oliver apparently could. Laurel had a brief image of herself in a 'hero costume' that included those awful fishnets from that Halloween party back in 2005 and shuddered for a moment.

_Somers is on the phone. "You, listen up. The longer this goes on, the more likely the media is gonna crucify me. You shut this trial down, do you understand me?" Somers is knocked out. When he wakes up, he's hanging upside down. "What the hell?" _

"_Martin Somers!" Oliver is standing several feet in front of Somers._

"_Who the hell are you?" _

"_You've failed this city," Oliver says, and preps an arrow._

_Somers holds his hands out in front of him. "No! No, no, no, no, no!" _

"_You're gonna testify in that trial," Oliver tells him. "You're gonna confess to having Victor Nocenti killed. There won't be a second warning." Oliver lets loose the arrow, which cuts Somers' cheek as it passes. He screams and when he looks up again, Oliver has vanished.  
_

"Gotta find out where Ollie picked up his ninja skills," Thea muttered under her breath.

_At the Queen Mansion, Moira is speaking with Diggle. "I hired you to protect my son. Now, I'm not a professional bodyguard, but it seems to me that the first requirement would be managing to stay next to the man you're hired to protect."  
_

_Diggle, with a neutral expression despite the lambasting he's received, says, "With all due respect, ma'am, I never had a client who didn't want my protection."  
_

"_I hired you," Moira replies stiffly. "That makes me the client. Now where do you think my son is going on these chaperone-less excursions?" _

"_Ma'am, I truly do not know."  
_

"_And he truly doesn't," Oliver says, a little too happily, as he enters.  
_

Tommy snickered. "I know he's basically lying to us all by acting like he used to in some cases, but it's still hilarious how he acts with Mr. Diggle."

"Indeed," Moira replied, though her tone was sour as opposed to Tommy's amused one.

Malcolm, on the other hand, was frowning. Diggle would at least know Oliver's reputation, and thus Oliver would be able to evade the man with normal ways, like he did everyone else. Yet he had used his skills a few times now to evade Mr. Diggle. That was rather peculiar, in Malcolm's opinion. He could tell enough about Oliver that the younger archer didn't do anything without a purpose. Then he remembered the conversation between Diggle and Oliver in the car, before Oliver had bailed. _I wonder. . . ._ Malcolm thought to himself, mind whirring. If what he suspected was true, Oliver must have received training from some black ops. organization.

_Moira gives her son a Look as she replies, "Then perhaps you'd like to share with me where it is you run off to."  
_

"_I've been alone for five years."  
_

"_I know that, Oliver-"  
_

"_Mom," Oliver says, giving her a significant look. "Alone."  
_

_Moira looks disappointed as she says, "I see."  
_

Moira rubbed her temples as Thea snickered beside her. Both of the Merlyns also looked amused, and Laurel shook her head as she scoffed, "Of _course_ he would use sleeping with some floozy as an excuse for his vigilante antics. We'd believe it!"

"Aw, wish it was you he was claiming to spend time with?" Thea asked teasingly. Tommy's expression once again became somewhat sour, as did Quentin's, while Laurel flushed and thus revealed that at least part of her wished it was. Thea snickered again.

"_I promise to introduce her if it ever gets to the exchanging first names stage." _

"_No, I'd rather you promise to take Mr. Diggle with you on your next rendezvous. It's not safe, you've already been abducted once. There is a maniac out there, hunting the wealthy."  
_

"_That maniac saved my life," Oliver replies, as he can't exactly say he's said maniac.  
_

"I really wonder who had a hand in Ollie's training," Laurel said. "As Mr. Merlyn said earlier, he would never have been able to keep his cool when someone called him something derogatory. Of course," here, Laurel's expression became sly, "we'll have to see what happens when Dad says something to him."

"What d'you mean, Laurel?" Quentin asked his daughter, who looked at him.

"You hate Oliver, and you clearly hate his vigilante persona," Laurel replied. "Any inkling you get that they're the same person, you'll run with it. Or can you tell me I'm wrong?" She raised a challenging eyebrow at her father, who coughed and turned back to the screen.

"_This isn't a game. I lost you once. And I am not going through that again."  
_

_Oliver softens and says, "Okay. Digg's my guy."  
_

"_Thank you." Moira leaves the two men alone.  
_

_Oliver turns to Diggle. "Sorry to give you so much grief."  
_

"_I served three tours in Afghanistan, Mr. Queen. You don't even come close to my definition of grief. But I tell you what. You ditch me one more time, no one will have to fire me."  
_

_As Oliver and Diggle enter the main foyer of the Queen Mansion, Thea can be seen leaving. "Where you going?" Oliver asks. _

"_Uh somewhere loud and smoky," Thea replies. Then, with a bit of a bratty attitude, "And don't bother trying to pickpocket my stash this time, because I'm gonna go get drunk instead."  
_

_Oliver, looking disapproving, says, "Thea, do you think this is what dad would want for you?" _

_Thea gives her brother a glare. "Dead people don't want anything. It's one of the benefits of being dead."  
_

_Oliver looks at her with a heavy expression. "I was dead. And I wanted a lot."  
_

Thea flinched at the way the conversation was going, but her on-screen counterpart wasn't finished.

"_Except for your family," Thea says. "You've been home a week and all you do is avoid mom, ignore Walter, and judge me. Don't wait up."  
_

_At the docks, Quentin is speaking with Somers. "Well, I owe you an apology, Mr.  
Somers. We come all the way down to your docks, and it turns out, you don't need the police after all."  
_

"_Which is exactly what I've been saying," Somers replies.  
_

"_Yeah," Quentin replies. "So I guess that 9-1-1 call we got last night from your stevedore, saying that you were getting attacked by a guy in a green hood and a bow and arrow I guess well, was that a practical joke?" _

"Guess the Triads got someone to play stevedore that wouldn't squeal on them," Laurel said, somewhat bitterly. Quentin looked further disgruntled since it meant his daughter was more than likely to support Queen's crusade than the law.

_Somers, giving a somewhat mocking look, says, "These guys like to fool around."  
_

"_Yeah," Quentin says, drawing the word out before saying, "Well, you know, I'd be very much inclined to believe an honest, upstanding businessman like yourself, except, well, one of my men found this at your docks." An officer brings one of Oliver's arrows to him. _

"_You see, there's this vigilante running around," Quentin says, using the arrow as a sort of 'pointer'. "He thinks he's some kind of Robin Hood. He's robbing the rich, he's trying to teach them a lesson I guess. I don't know, I don't know. But the point is, the man's a killer. And nothing, and no one, is going to stop me from bringing him down.  
But like you said. . ." Quentin puts the arrow into the small crevice of where an arrow had been buried in the desk. "Hmm! Clearly, nothing happened here last night."  
_

"Not the best idea you've had, Detective," Malcolm said, giving the man a look. "If you're so concerned about your daughter, I'd think you'd consider threatening a man who is 'mobbed up to the eyeballs with the Triads' as being. . . . unwise. Or perhaps your hatred for Oliver and his alter ego has clouded your judgment?"

There was not a single person in the room who failed to notice the somewhat subtle, biting humor that Malcolm employed, a humor similar to Oliver's and Roy's. Albeit unconsciously, those present began to wonder exactly why Malcolm Merlyn had been included in this viewing, especially since they recalled the look the cyborg had given him when speaking of the reactions fo some on the station to the 'presence' of certain people.

"_Isn't this a conflict of interest, detective?" Somers asks. "After all, your daughter is suing me."  
_

"_I'm pretty good at keeping my emotions in check," Quentin replies.  
_

"_I'm not," Somers says, and stands to close the distance between he and Quentin. "You and your daughter don't want to find out what I'm capable of when I get emotional." Quentin looks at the man, his quick mind coming to a realization very fast._

"Aw, crap," Laurel muttered to herself. Tommy smiled at Laurel's reaction, since he knew that she and her father always butted heads when it came to Quentin's tendency towards overprotection, a tendency that had become almost fanatical since the loss of Sara.

_The next day, at Queen Consolidated, Oliver is following Moira and Walter onto the top floor where the executive offices are located. "As you can see, Oliver, we've modernized quite a bit," Walter says.  
_

_Oliver follows a beautiful employee with his eyes and says, "Hi."  
_

On cue, Laurel, Tommy, and Thea rolled their eyes at Oliver.

"_Are you enjoying yourself?" Moira says, holding onto Oliver with a smile at his actions. _

"_Yes, I am."  
_

"_I remember when your father used to bring you here when you were a boy. You always were so excited," Walter says.  
_

"_Dad let me drink soda in the office."  
_

"_Ah! So that's why you enjoyed coming."  
_

_As they enter the CEO's office, Walter says, "Queen Consolidated's success of late is a result of its targeted diversification. We have been making impressive inroads in cutting-edge fields like bio-tech and clean energy."  
_

"_That's neat," Oliver says before gesturing to the secretary outside, raising his voice as he calls out, "Excuse me? Can I get a sparkling water, or something cold, please?" The woman begins walking away, apparently to do so. _

_Moira guides Oliver towards the more casual seats in the office. "Sweetheart, Oliver, Walter and I have something to discuss with you. Come, please sit."  
_

"_Mom, it makes me nervous when you ask me to sit down," Oliver says.  
_

_Moira stops trying to guide him as Walter says, "The company's about to break ground on a new site for the applied sciences division, and we would like to honor your father by dedicating the building in his name."  
_

"_Nice."  
_

"_And we'd like to make an announcement at the dedication that you will be taking a leadership position in the company," Moira says.  
_

"_No," Oliver replies.  
_

"As I said, Moira," Malcolm said softly, "while Oliver might be trying to make it seem he's the same person, even the old Oliver wouldn't have wanted anything to do with the company. An Oliver who is trying to fulfill his father's last wish, to save the city, would be even less likely to take a position in Queen Consolidated." Malcolm's sharp ears picked up a snickering above them, and he looked up to see the future Roy Harper looking down at them. Perhaps Malcolm's reasoning was flawed, or perhaps Oliver somehow managed to take a position at the company and still be his 'vigilante' persona?

"_Your-your company," Moira points out.  
_

"_No, I don't want to lead anything," Oliver says, before gesturing to Walter. "Besides, Walter is doing a very good job here."  
_

"_You said that you wanted to be a different person," Moira points out. "And you are Robert Queen's son."  
_

Moira winced at her words. She knew exactly how Oliver was going to reply to that.

Moira wasn't the only one who winced at that. Thea did so (primarily because of the fact that her biological father was sitting right next to her) and Laurel did as well. Laurel was one of the very few who knew that Oliver had wanted to be seen as more than just Robert Queen's son, which was why he had done more partying than schooling at the universities he had dropped out of. It had been a sort of rebellion, the same kind of rebellion that Tommy was, for all intents and purposes, continuing in regards to Malcolm.

"_I don't need to be reminded of that," Oliver says heatedly.  
_

"_Well, obviously you do," Moira replies in kind. _

"_Everyone here understands that this transition is really difficult for you," Walter interjects. _

"_Thank you, Walter," Oliver says, before turning his attention back to his mother. "Which part, though? Everyone fantasizing that I got my MBA while I was on the island? Or the fact that my father's CFO now sleeps down the hall from me?" _

_Moira sighs, hand moving about in irritation. "You know, five years ago, your irresponsibility was somewhat charming. It is a lot less so now." She leaves. _

_Oliver exits the building with Diggle, who guides him through the starving vultures to the car. Once they're both inside, Diggle says, "The driver will be here in a minute."  
_

"_Okay," Oliver replies.  
_

_Diggle, adjusting his suit, says, "You know, I spent the first 27 years of my life in Starling City, and the next five in Afghanistan. You want to know what I learned?" _

"_There's no place like home?" Oliver says, somewhat sarcastically. _

"_No, just the opposite," Diggle replies. "Home is a battlefield. Back home, they're all trying to get you. Get you to open up, be somebody you're not sure you are anymore." _

Malcolm tilted his head, his suspicions about Oliver and Diggle's comments to one another, and Oliver's lack of 'countermeasures' that he used with everyone else, reared their head again. He was now almost certain that Oliver was intending to bring Mr. Diggle onboard as an ally. But why?

_His tone and body language changes. "Or I could be wrong. Maybe after five years alone, you're not as messed up in the head as you have every right to be."  
_

_A brief flashback shows Oliver stumbling down the rocky shore of the island, shouting at the birds fluttering around the raft. "Hey! Hey, get away! Hey! Dad?" The birds are trying to 'scavenge' from Robert's body. "Hey! Hey, stay away from him!"_

Thea's vision swam and she made it only partway to the door before she lost the battle with her stomach. Moira managed not to react outwardly beyond closing her eyes, but everyone could see how her lips thinned, as though she was holding in her own bout of vomiting. Everyone else in the room were likewise sickened, and more importantly, considering the psychological impact that would have had on the younger Oliver Queen.

After Thea had finished emptying her stomach, a red blur rushed through the room, cleaning up the mess left by Thea's bout of vomiting in seconds. Malcolm raised an eyebrow. That was certainly intriguing, and a bit alarming if that had been a person. Exactly what had occurred in the years since their own time that people could now possess such abilities?

_Back in the present, Laurel and Joanna are speaking with Emily Nocenti at CNRI. "Well, we anticipate that Somers' attorney will try and paint you as blinded by grief or looking to make a buck."  
_

"_This isn't about the money," Emily says, looking scandalized. "I just want justice for my father."_

"_Emily, there are a lot of people who don't want this trial to proceed. Dangerous people."  
_

"_My mother died when I was a baby, and my father has been the only family I've ever known and they slit his throat," Emily says, looking resolute. "They are going to have to kill me if they want me to give this up."  
_

"_Well let's hope it doesn't come to that," Laurel replies, even as her father walks up with some uniformed cops.  
_

"_And it won't."  
_

"_What's going on?" Laurel asks, a bit of defiance already present in her tone. _

Quentin scoffed at this. At Laurel's look, he said, "Please, you get stubbornness from me and your mother. I just don't like how often its directed at me."

"_What's going on is that the three of you are getting around-the-clock police protection." Quentin gestures around at the cops and the three women. "Okay? Get used to their faces, because they're going with you everywhere you go, no arguments." He points specifically at Laurel, who reacts as expected.  
_

"_I'm a lawyer. I live to argue."  
_

Tommy and Thea snickered.

_Quentin steps close to Laurel, his face serious. "I'm your father. I live to keep you safe."  
_

_Joanna, sensing tension, said, "Um, Emily, let's go grab a cup of coffee, okay?" _

"_Yes, why not do that?" Quentin says. "Thank you." He gestures to two of the cops. "Please, go with them. Stay there."_

_After Joanna and Emily have departed with their 'new friends', Laurel gives her father a glare. "Protective custody? I seem to recall you trying that once I discovered boys also. Didn't work then either."_

"Not boys," Tommy muttered. "_One_ boy." Laurel flushed, for two different reasons. Embarrassment, since she had mainly had eyes for Oliver, and irritation since Tommy was letting his jealousy out to play again. _  
_

"_This isn't a joke, Laurel," Quentin says, looking serious. "Martin Somers got attacked last night."  
_

"_What?" Laurel replies, shocked. _

"_Yeah."  
_

"_By who?" _

"_It doesn't matter," Quentin says, clearly shifty. _

"Afraid I'm going to tell you he's doing a good thing?" Laurel asked her father shrewdly.

"_Point is, you have whipped up a storm with these guys, and until the dust settles you'll be protected, okay? End of discussion."  
_

"_That might have worked when I was eight," Laurel replies, still stubborn. "But it's not gonna work anymore."  
_

"_End of discussion, Laurel!" Quentin cuts in. "You're insistent on doing your job, that's great. But this is me doing mine, okay? And not just as a father, but as a cop. These people, they are more dangerous than you are willing to admit." He steps closer to emphasize his point. "And you've made them angry."  
_

_At the docks, Martin Somers is meeting a Chinese woman with white hair (presumably dyed). "Thank you for coming," Somers says.  
_

"_Anything for a friend," China White replies.  
_

"_We're not friends," Somers points out. "You smuggle drugs, I let you use my port."  
_

"_For which you're paid a lot of money," China White says.  
_

"_I don't get paid enough to have arrows shot at me," Somers says, pointing at the cut on his cheek. "You need to take this guy seriously. He is a bigger threat to your operation than Nocenti ever was."  
_

"_Except now it's Nocenti's daughter who's the problem," China White points out. "Unlike your friend with the hood, we know where to find her."  
_

"_Don't be an idiot," Somers scowls. "You take out Emily Nocenti, and Laurel Lance will never let this go. She won't stop until she burns you, me, and then the entire triad to the ground."  
_

_China White smiles and replies, "Then we kill Ms. Lance."  
_

Laurel felt herself stiffen. Even though she knew she would do this again in the future (justice mattered too much to her to not do so), she couldn't help but feel slightly afraid at pissing off the local Triad. Quentin also stiffened at the threat levied against his eldest, and Tommy wrapped an arm around Laurel as way of offering comfort.

Malcolm made a mental note to keep an eye on Laurel during that particular case, since he knew how the Triad operated. Besides, Laurel had influence with not only his son, but also Oliver. By helping her, even as his archer persona, Malcolm could gain a bit of influence with the two men; with his son, he could maybe get him to grow up, and with Oliver, he could try and convince him the Undertaking was the right path.

_The local news affiliate is in the midst of the report as we see Oliver getting ready at the Queen Mansion. "Attorney for shipping magnate, Martin Somers, has confirmed his client has no intention of testifying, maintaining his innocence in the wrongful death of Victor Nocenti. Nocenti's body was found four weeks ago. We'll keep you updated as more information becomes available." _

_A close up of Oliver's scars and the dragon tattoo are shown before a view from the front is seen. The symbol of designating Oliver's status in the Bratva is seen tattooed just under the left collar bone. _

Quentin said, "Stop the memories for a moment." Thea did so, and Quentin moved closer, studying the tattoo closely. After a moment, he scoffed and said, "Justice. Right. . . ." He moved to take a seat again. He gestured for Thea to begin the playback, but before the teenager could, Malcolm had stopped her. Thea glanced at her biological father, who was giving the detective a speculative look.

"Something you'd like to share with us, Detective?" Malcolm asked idly. "Perhaps something about the tattoo?" He knew the design looked familiar, but couldn't quite place it.

Quentin debated for a moment whether or not to pull the, "You don't need to know" card, but in the end, his desire to see the people here who were supporting Queen recognize the man for what he had become was too great. "That tattoo? It's the insignia for a captain in the Russian Bratva. You don't get something like that without some serious backing, and you certainly don't get backing like that by being an island castaway or the scion of a family of One Percenters. You get that by doing some damn shady shit for the Russians." (1)

There wasn't a single expression that wasn't stricken at the information just revealed by Quentin, though Malcolm internally considered it to be a fortuitous bout of information. If there was one organization which he had not yet gotten an agent within, it was the Russian Bratva. That Oliver had somehow managed to not only join them but became a captain during his five year sojourn away from Starling City was impressive, and made him quite the valued asset.

Moira noticed the calculating look in Malcolm's eyes and stifled a groan. Oliver was continuing to make himself a highly sought after asset for Malcolm, who already had a skilled enforcer in the form of the Dark Archer, as some called him.

_As he puts on a shirt, Thea enters. "Wait, how did you get those?" Thea says, staring. _

"_Don't you knock?" Oliver demands angrily, as he pulls the shirt over and tries to hurriedly button it. _

_Thea approaches him quickly and turns him to face her. "No, wait," she says, revealing the scars. "Mom said that there were scars, but I'm. . . . Oliver, what happened to you out there?" _

_Oliver replies stoically, "I don't want to talk about it," as he buttons his shirt.  
_

_Thea scoffs. "Of course you don't. You never want to talk to me about anything.  
Except for my social life." Thea begins walking away. _

"_Wait!" Oliver says, and she turns. "Where are you going?" _

"_Why should I tell you?" She replies snidely. _

"_I'm sorry, Thea," Oliver says softly. "I need to get better at talking about what happened to me there. But I'm not ready yet. Okay?"  
_

_Thea softens and says, "Do you have a second?" _

"_Yeah."  
_

"_Good. I wanna show you something out back." In the back lawn, she leads him to the memorial stones for he and Robert. "Sometimes, when I felt. . . . whatever, I'd come here. About a month after the funerals, mom stopped going out. Pretty soon, she stopped talking altogether. The house got so quiet, so I'd come here. To talk to you. I mean, stupid stuff. Like what I was doing that day, what boy I had a crush on. . . ."_

Tommy and Laurel shifted guiltily. They could've taken up a position as surrogate siblings for Thea, but they hadn't. To know that the only comfort the girl had gotten over the years had come from drugs and talking to the headstone of her thought-dead brother had the guilt hitting them like waves on a beach. Moira also shifted guiltily, knowing she should have focused on her daughter's well-being before her own; but she had a hard time knowing that while Thea loved Robert as a father, it had been Thea's biological father who had killed Robert.

_Thea stops rambling and turns to face Oliver. "And then sometimes, I'd ask you, beg you, to find your way home to me. Now, here you are. And the truth is, I felt closer to you when you were dead." She takes a deep breath and continues, "Look, I know it was hell where you were. But it was hell here too. You gotta let me in, Ollie. You gotta let someone in."  
_

_Laurel is working on her laptop when a series of knocks draws her to the door. _

"Of course he picks you," Thea muttered, but there was no bite to the words. In fact, there was a hint of a smirk, and Laurel had to shake her head. Thea was _very_ intent on making fun of her about Oliver.

_Looking cautious, she opens it up. Oliver's on the other side, looking a little nervous. "Hi. Are you okay? There are two cop cars outside."  
_

_Laurel gives Oliver a look and asks, "How am I supposed to stay away from you if you won't stay away from me? I- What are you doing here, Ollie?" _

"_My sister. . . . She pointed out to me that I have been distant since I got back and that it would probably be a good idea if I let somebody in," Oliver stumbles over the words a bit.  
_

"_So, you thought you'd start with the first person you pushed away," Laurel replies skeptically.  
_

"_I did that to protect you," Oliver said. "And then I saw you yesterday, and I realized that I hurt you." After a moment, Laurel opens the door wider and allows Oliver to enter. "Thank you," he whispers before taking a look around. _

"_Wow. This place hasn't changed in five years."  
_

"_I haven't really had time to redecorate," Laurel replies defensively.  
_

"_I'm a jerk," Oliver says suddenly, and Laurel focuses on him as he continues, "Before the island, I was a jerk, and now, I'm just a. . . . I'm a damaged jerk."  
_

"_What's in the bag?" Laurel says, her expression soft. _

Quentin shook his head. He knew how big his daughter's heart was, and he knew that Queen always had a place in it. He just wished she would at least _try_ to keep him at arm's length. Somehow, with the things being revealed as they were, he doubted his daughter would be as stand-offish with Queen as she was likely to be in the 'uninterrupted timeline' they were being shown.

"_I thought about many things on the island, but there was one thing that I thought about every day," Oliver said, closing the gap between them. "I actually dreamed about it, and I promised myself that if I ever got a chance to do it again, I'd do it with you." He opens the bag and pulls out a carton of Rocky Road. "Eat ice cream."  
_

_The two are now eating ice cream. "This is as good as I remember," Oliver says. Laurel, perched on the couch, looks a bit amused. Oliver looks at her a moment then says, "My mother wants me to join the company." He meets her gaze, Laurel looking a bit surprised. "Yeah. Take my rightful place."_

"I can't exactly picture you as master of the universe," Laurel replies.  


Moira raised an eyebrow at the younger woman, who just met her gaze evenly. Moira's expression became thoughtful as she turned back to the screen. She had been unduly harsh on Laurel in the past since she thought it better the girl not get her hopes up for her and Oliver. A mother knew her son, and Moira knew the man, no, boy her son had been back then would not have been a good fit for Laurel. But the Oliver that was returning from the Island. . . . perhaps Laurel could help him change from the killer he had become into something better.

_Oliver smiles slightly at her witty reply before saying, "You know, after five years, I have plans. I have things that I have to do. I can't do that if I'm. . . . I don't know. . . . attending board meetings and stockholder briefings."  
_

_Laurel, looking amused again, says, "Oliver?" _

"_Hmm?" He turns his attention to her._

"_You're an adult. You can say no," she replies, as though explaining one plus one equals two to an obstinate toddler.  
_

"_Oh, I tried. Didn't take," Oliver says ruefully.  
_

"_Well, then don't tell her; show her," Laurel suggests. "Be the person that you want her to see you as. _

"Why do I think I'm going to regret giving him that advice?" Laurel asked somewhat plaintively.

"Because you know Oliver, regardless of how much he's changed," Moira replied.

_Trust me. I have plenty of experience with disapproving parents."_

"_I have been on the receiving end of your father's disapproval."  
_

Quentin smirked, "More than once. . . ." Laurel rolled her eyes at her father.

"_He blames himself more than he blames you."  
_

Quentin raised an eyebrow at his daughter, who merely returned the expression with a hint of challenge. The cop frowned, then turned back to the screen.

"_He thinks that, you know, maybe if he and Sarah were closer, she would have told him about the boat trip. And he could have stopped her from going with you."  
_

_Oliver gives her a long look before saying, "I am sorry."  
_

"_You apologized already," she says.  
_

"_And it'll never be enough," Oliver replies with feeling.  
_

Quentin tried not to look concerned with the amount of guilt Queen was piling on himself. Now that he knew Sara was alive, thanks to Queen telling him, Quentin knew that he was seeing things differently then his on-screen counterpart. But still, the younger man didn't need to pile that much guilt on himself.

_A rustle of something hitting metal outside attracts Oliver's attention. "Did you hear that?" _

"_What?" As Laurel looks in the direction of the kitchen, Oliver grabs the kitchen knife on the table, left there for unknown reasons, without attracting attention. _

_He stands as he says, "There's someone on the fire escape." He stands and begins walking around. Laurel looks surprised, and he interrupted her startled exclamation with a, "Hey, come on. Come on!" They head for the door, which bursts open from the body of a police officer being thrown into it. A Triad member enters and Oliver pulls Laurel away from danger as the Triad thug opens fire.  
_

"For once, I'm happy about the fact Queen has an attraction to my daughters," Quentin said, looking relieved. He didn't like Queen or his new persona, but he was keeping Laurel safe and that was something Quentin Lance could get behind.

_As the two enter another room, China White appears. As Oliver and Laurel back away, Oliver clearly prepping to fight the Triad assassin, the gunman cuts off their only escape route. A moment later, the gunman himself is shot as Diggle enters the scene. He fires at China White, who evades the gunfire before engaging Diggle in unarmed combat. When Diggle is knocked down, Oliver throws the kitchen knife across the room and interrupts China White's attack. The woman looks at him before turning and fleeing through the open window. Diggle retrieves his weapon and turns to the two. Laurel has ran into Oliver's arms. _

"_Are you hurt?" Diggle asks urgently._

"_No," Oliver replies.  
_

_Diggle apparently hasn't heard as he asks again, "Are you hurt, Mr. Queen?" _

"_No! No," Oliver replies, shaking his head to emphasize the word.  
_

"_This is why it's a good idea to have a bodyguard," Diggle replies with a bit of sarcasm.  
_

_Oliver checks Laurel and has her look at him as he says, "You okay?" She nods wordlessly. _

_Later, police are all over the apartment as Quentin enters. "Daddy!" Laurel goes to him. He hugs her as he says, "Oh, thank God. Thank God. Are you all right?" _

"_I'm okay," Laurel replies, still looking a bit shaky. "Those cops that you put on me. . . ." _

_Quentin shakes his head before saying, "They-" _

"_I went outside to ask for a light and they were both dead in the squad car," Diggle says softly.  
_

_Quentin moves around Laurel to shake Diggle's hand. "Mr. Diggle, thank you. Feel free to run as many red lights in the city as you want."  
_

"_I was just doing my job, sir."  
_

"_No, your job is protecting him," Quentin nods at Oliver, who he then approaches. "It seems like whenever you're with one of my daughters, people die. You stay away from Laurel, or I swear the next time you disappear, it will be permanent."  
_

"_Dad!" _

"_No, Laurel-" _

"_It's okay. I understand."  
_

"_Yeah," Quentin half-sneers before turning and leaving with Laurel.  
_

"I've never seen someone use one word in so many different ways," Malcolm said, giving the detective an amused glance. "Tell me, do you use that word when you really want to use a rather crass phrase?" Quentin's narrowed eyes were all Malcolm needed to know his guess was accurate.

_At the Queen Mansion, Diggle is favoring his injured hand as Oliver passes by. Oliver tosses him an ice pack. "Here! I'd say thank you, but I don't think that would cover it."  
_

_Diggle stands and says, "Well, like I told your cop friend, I was just doing my job. Besides, I think it should be you that I'm thanking."  
_

"_What for?" _

"_The knife."  
_

"_The knife," Oliver repeats, before looking at Diggle. "I got lucky."  
_

"_That was a kitchen knife. It wasn't even weighted properly, yet you threw it with accuracy across a 10-foot room."  
_

"_Exactly," Oliver replies. "I got lucky."  
_

"_I'm not the kind of man you want to take for a fool, Mr. Queen, you understand me?" _

"_Yes."  
_

"_And I think I'm just beginning to understand the kind of man you are," Diggle says.  
_

"_Shouldn't take you very long. I'm shallow," Oliver replies. "And very tired, so. . . . good night."  
_

"_Good night, sir."  
_

"He's testing him," Malcolm said, now certain of his suspicions. Seeing the looks he was receiving from the others, he clarified, "Mr. Diggle would know Oliver's reputation, and Oliver could use the same countermeasures against the man as he has with everyone else. Instead, he has used skills that he never had before twice in regards to Mr. Diggle, and is blatantly obvious in his lack of cover stories."

Quentin glanced at the screen and nodded to himself. Merlyn Sr. was right. Though now Quentin's suspicions about the businessman were raised; it was one thing to know the ways criminals worked in the Glades, but quite another to guess as to why Oliver was acting the way he was with Mr. Diggle. There was something very suspicious about Merlyn Sr.'s support of Oliver and his actions, something more than just his distaste for the police's lack of skills regarding his wife's murder.

_At the lair, Oliver is preparing to go out as The Hood. "I wanted to give Martin Somers the chance to confess and face a court's justice, but he chose to go after someone I care about instead." Oliver flips up the hood of his outfit, having dealt with the rest of his preparations. "He's still going to face justice." Oliver opens the crate and retrieves his bow. "It'll just be a different kind."  
_

Laurel felt a shiver go up her spine in knowing how much Oliver cared about her, even after five years of hell.

_At the docks, Somers is panicking. "Triad bitch screwed up the hit on Lance. Now, the triad is gonna erase every ounce of evidence of their smuggling operation, including me. Except that's not gonna happen. Tell Wallace to get the boat ready. I'm leaving tonight."  
_

_His security officer begins talking on the radio. "Wallace? Wallace, you copy? Wallace?" No answer, then. . ._

"_Wallace isn't here. But I am," Oliver says over the radio as Somers begins to look horrified.  
_

"_We need to move, now. Move!" He begins running with his security officer._

"_Sir, we've got six men out there."  
_

"_It's not enough. Move it!" Somers replies in panic._

"That's right, run scared, you bastard," Roy muttered. The Triad and their drug smuggling had killed a few of his friends via overdose, so knowing that the Queen scion was taking down part of their operation, even temporarily, was something Roy could fully support. He wondered how he became involved with the man, and he also noticed that after the conversation they had had with the future version of Oliver Queen, the Merlyns and Queens in the room had given him more than one speculative look.

_At Laurel's apartment, she and her father are having another of their infamous cop dad, lawyer daughter discussions. "You're gonna go back into that courtroom tomorrow and you're gonna recuse yourself from this case, all right? Or drop it. Either way, you're done."  
_

"_If you think I'm gonna abandon Emily Nocenti, then you don't know me all that well."_

"_You don't know me well, young lady. I will lock you in a cell if that's what it takes." _

_Laurel stands and says, "Well, I guess that's what it's gonna take, then." She begins to walk away.  
_

_Quentin, losing his composure slightly, says, "Damn it, Laurel! I thought after what happened with Sara, you'd stop being just so reckless." _

_Laurel turns and replies, somewhat acidly, "It's not about being reckless! It's just the opposite. I'm trying to make this city safer, just like you."  
_

"_Sweetie. . . ." Quentin says before closing the distance and, with a broken composure, says, "You're my only daughter, Laurel. You're all I have left to live for."  
_

_Laurel, whose composure has similarly slipped, replies, "But what you want from me isn't living. Having cops around, not being able to do my job." _

"_Your job is not going after people like the triad or Somers," Quentin argues, the anger coming back.  
_

_Laurel replies in kind with, "My job is to use the law to fight for what is right. Just like you taught me."  
_

"_Well, that's dirty. Using me against me. You can't do that."  
_

"_Well Maybe I picked that up along the way, too," Laurel says, her tone and expression a bit softer.  
_

Quentin had to smile at that. It was no wonder his eldest and he had their constant battles. Of course, the other reason was Quentin knew his daughter's heart tended to cloud her judgment, and that had her making decisions that put her in the crosshairs of people like the Triad.

_Quentin's cell phone rings. "Lance." A moment later he says, "I'll be right there," and hangs up. He turns to Laurel. "I gotta go. Something's going on at the docks."  
_

_At the docks, Oliver fights his way through Somers' men, firing arrows and taking down the thugs paid to be Somers' security. One man is unfortunate enough to fall from a lengthy height after receiving an arrow. _

There was a universal wince, even though they knew the man in question was a thug working for Somers. Getting an arrow in the torso before falling to your death was not a pleasant way to go.

_Oliver leaps onto a cargo container and sees Somers running towards a circular building. "Somers!" _

_Somers enters the building and stumbles, looking around wildly. Oliver enters and fires an arrow, which lands just shy of Somers' shoulder, causing the man to stiffen against a stack of crates. "Oh, God, no, no, no."  
_

"_He can't help you," Oliver says and fires an arrow that embeds itself on the opposite side of Somers' head from the previous arrow. "I want the truth about Victor Nocenti." _

"_I can't. The triad will kill me."  
_

"_The triad's not your concern right now." Oliver fires another arrow which embeds itself in the space between Somers' legs.  
_

Tommy coughed to cover a laugh, while the women in the room raised their eyebrows. Roy smirked.

"_All right, all right, all right. It wasn't me that killed him. It was the triad."_

_"Acting on whose instructions?" When Somers hesitates, Oliver fires another arrow which embeds just above Somers' head. "Whose!?" _

"_All right, all right. It was mine. It was mine, all right? Nocenti said he was gonna testify against me." Somers, suddenly looking afraid, looks behind Oliver, who turns to find China White standing there. _

"_Get away from him," the assassin says in Chinese. _

"_Make me," Oliver replies in kind. _

"Once more, Oliver's skill in language surprises me," Malcolm said idly. "He would make a fine addition to any company office dealing with foreign affairs." He was giving Moira a subtle suggestion that Oliver would be better off in a section of the company that didn't deal with the Undertaking.

_The two fight even as police arrive outside. It is clear that both of them are very skilled in hand-to-hand. _

Despite the fact that they knew Oliver had had training, he had only gone up against one other skilled fighter, and not much was known about Constantine Drakon by those present. But everyone knew that being a member of the Triad almost always guaranteed excellent martial art skills. To see Oliver keeping up with China White was much more revealing to them as to what kind of change Oliver had gone through on the Island.

"_This is the police! Drop your weapons, you are surrounded." The two fighters break away even as the police continue calling out, "Put down your weapons or we will open fire. I repeat, lay down your weapons."  
_

_Oliver, now outside, drops down from a shippin container and moves forward even as Quentin comes up behind him. "Freeze!" Oliver stops. "You twitch and you're dead." Quentin's gun is steady as the two stand-off. "Bow down, hands up."  
_

_A moment later, Oliver throws an arrow which disarms Quentin without harmin him, pinning Quentin's gun to the container. Quentin goes up to it and notices it has a recording device attached. Pressin the button for playback, he hears Somers' confession and half-smirks. "You son of a bitch. . . ."  
_

Moira coughed at this. Quentin muttered an apology, even though his on-screen counterpart had no clue Queen was the vigilante.

_At the lair, Oliver is putting away his gear. "Laurel will be safe. She was right. I can't be the Oliver my mother wants me to be and still keep the promise I made to my father. I have to be the person I need them to see me as."_

Laurel groaned, knowing she was about to see the 'fruit of her labors', so to speak.

_The press and guests are gathering at the dedication for the land of the new Applied Sciences division of Q.C.  
_

_Tommy sees Laurel in the crowd and comes up to her. "Okay, this is a surprise. Did you show up here by mistake?" _

"_By invitation. Oliver invited me last night."  
_

"_Last night?" _

"_Is that surprise or jealousy I'm hearing?" _

"_Look, I just don't want him to find out anything, okay? Oliver has been through a lot," Tommy says, looking uncomfortable.  
_

"_Tommy, we've all been through a lot," Laurel points out.  
_

Laurel shook her head as she saw the naivete she possessed on screen. "I must really be focused on not liking Oliver at all because of Sara," she said. "Otherwise, I really don't think I'd say something like that. I've had to have heard about the scars by now. . . ."

_Walter steps up to the podium. "Good afternoon. And thank you all for coming. Welcome to the future site of the Robert Queen memorial applied sciences center. Now, this is a building that will stand as a monument to the man whose company and vision are his greatest legacies. . ." Walter trails off as Oliver arrives. _

"Oh dear," Moira said softly, recognizing the gait with which Oliver was walking. He had either drunk enough liquor to viably be drunk for this moment, or he was a very good actor when it came to acting in a way he wasn't. Moira personally suspected the latter. . . ._  
_

"_Whoa! Whoa! What about me? Right? I'm a legacy." Oliver, apparently drunk, moves through the crowd and goes up onto the podium. "Hey! Thanks for warming them up, Walt. All right." He pushes Walter away from the podium, acting quite drunk and 'apologizing' at low volume. Once steady at the podium, he says, "Some of you may not know me. My name is Oliver Queen. Watch some television, read a newspaper, I'm kind of famous right now." Oliver's words have properly made him appear the same asshole he was before. His demeanor turns serious as he says, "Mostly, though, I'm famous because I'm Robert Queen's son. Uh, but as Walter, who's my new dad. . . . Huh? Who is. . . sorry. As Walter was saying, I'm not much of a legacy, per se."  
_

_Walter, realizing that this is a reaction to his and Moira's actions, says, "Oliver, you don't have to do this."  
_

_Oliver's having none of it as he says, "No, sit. Sit! Gosh." Turning back to the crowd, he says, "See, I was supposed to come here today, and I'm supposed to take my rightful place at the company. Prodigal son returns home and becomes the heir apparent. But I'm not my father." Oliver's demeanor changes again, to one of slight anger. "I'm not the man he was. I'm not half the man he was. I never will be." He turns to look directly at Moira as he finishes, "So, please, stop asking me to be." Oliver steps off the podium as Moira looks somewhat ashamed and walks away.  
_

Moira has the same ashamed look as her on-screen counterpart, though it is also mixed with guilt. Had she become so self-absorbed and focused on 'normalcy' thanks to her involvement with Malcolm that she would push her son, who she _must_ have realized at least had PTSD, to take a position at the company when he clearly had no desire, even if she didn't know the real reasons for his less-than-eager position on doing so?

_At CNRI, Laurel and Joanna are watching the news report about the incident at the docks with Emily Nocenti. "Martin Somers, the CEO of starling port, was arrested last night for the murder of Victor Nocenti. He is also being accused of accepting cash, including over $10 million in bribes."  
_

_Laurel shuts off the television and gets Emily's attention. "Well, we can pursue the civil suit if you want, but the D.A. now has no choice, with Mr. Somers' confession, to prosecute him. He's going to jail, Emily, for the rest of his life."  
_

"_Thank you so much for fighting for us," Emily says.  
_

"_Well, thank you for being brave enough to let me," Laurel smiles.  
_

_Quentin arrives in the office, looking a bit uncomfortable as he says, "Hey."  
_

_Laurel says, "I thought I didn't need police protection anymore."  
_

"_I thought I didn't need a reason to see my own daughter," Quentin scowls.  
_

"_You don't."  
_

"_Hmm," Quentin hums non-commitally.  
_

"_You look tired," Laurel says.  
_

"_Yeah, I was filling out reports on the shootout at the port last night and getting grilled about how I let that __**archer**__ get away."_

_Laurel replies with, "I have to admit, I'm kind of glad he did. He brought down Martin Somers."  
_

_Quentin, sensing danger, says fiercely, "He hurt a bunch of people doing it, okay? He is no hero. He is an anarchist."  
_

"_Yeah, well, whoever he is, it seems like he's trying to help," Laurel replies, clearly believing Oliver's alter ego is better than her father believes.  
_

Quentin scowled, though it wasn't as heavy as his on-screen counterpart's.

"_The city doesn't need that kind of help, okay? It's like I always told you, you don't need to go outside the law to find justice. Now, I believe that. All right? And I promise you, when I catch this guy, he's gonna believe it, too."_

"Something tells me if you do catch Oliver, Detective," Malcolm said quietly, "it will be on his own terms. He's far too clever at this point to be caught by chance."

_At the Queen Mansion, Oliver is sitting at his desk and crossing Somers' name off the List. _

_In a flashback, Oliver can be seen struggling to carry his father's bod. He carefully places the body on the ground and slumps beside it. He sees the notebook the List is contained on in Robert's pocket, and pulls it out. He flips through it, finding it blank. At the front of the book, printed on the inside of the cover, he can see a strange symbol._

_Elsewhere in Starling City, Moira is meeting with someone in secret. As she speaks, it's clear she is nervous, implying whoever it is, is a very dangerous person. "Well, you saw for yourself," she says, sitting across from an unknown accomplice. "My son knows nothing. Robert didn't tell him anything that could hurt us. And he has no idea that the yacht was sabotaged." The person she is meeting holds up a leather case, which has the same symbol in embossed on it in gold._

Quentin felt like he had received a blow to the gut, and he glared at Moira. "Sabotaged? What the hell do you mean, _sabotaged_?"

Seeing the others in the room also glaring at her, save Malcolm (which raised suspicions), Moira said, "As I said previously, there are forces at work which you cannot understand, and more importantly, which you can't fight."

_At the Queen Mansion, Oliver is kneeling in front of Robert's memorial headstone. "All that time on the island, plotting my return, I didn't realize how hard it would be. To reconnect with Mom, Thea, Laurel. I didn't. . . ." Oliver composes himself a bit before continuing, "I didn't know how painful it would be to keep my secrets. You asked me to save the city. To right your wrongs. I will. I swear. But to do that, I can't be the Oliver that everyone wants me to be, which means that sometimes. . . . To honor your wishes, I need to dishonor your memory. I'm sorry." He gestures to the nearby workman and his own headstone. "Take it down." He goes to the car, where Diggle is waiting for him.  
_

"_Will you be going out tonight, sir?" _

"_Definitely."  
_

"Wonder who he's going after this time," Roy said idly, ignoring the looks he received from all quarters. Some were dirty (the cop) others speculative (Queens and Merlyns). Laurel Lance was somewhere between the two.

_In a final flashback to the Island, Oliver has finished burying his father in the ways of old when he is shot by an arrow through the shoulder. He cries out even as he collapses on the pile of stone covering his father. Turning, he sees a hooded archer preparing another arrow before losing consciousness. _

"It appears we've met Oliver's mentor," Malcolm said.

_**A/N: Laurel, Quentin, and Roy won't be discovering Thea's parentage for the time being. **_

_**One thing I need to re-iterate: the Selective Gathering fics I write will be for all seasons of Arrow, not just for the first two seasons. I have plans for other fics where they only watch a particular season, but we will see how things go. **_

_**(1) I have no working knowledge of the Russian bratva, so this is more an assumption than anything else. But I personally would find it very suspect if Oliver got that rank simply for rescuing Anatoli, since Anatoli implied he wasn't quite well-connected at the point they met. My guess is Oliver will get the tattoo in either Season 3 or Season 4. **_


	4. Chapter 4: Lone Gunmen

_**A/N: The footnotes for the previous two chapters have been added to them. Sorry for not putting them up; and a particular apology to Bloodsong13T, since I've apparently driven them insane by forgetting the footnotes. . . .**_

_**Also, since it has been a while, I wish to re-iterate something: when it comes to episodes which pick up where the last one left off (Episode 4 and Episode 14 in Season 1 being the most obvious), the events that are the same will only take place during the latter episode. This episode: Diggle awakening at the end will be moved to the next one. **_

_**I know I said I was going to wait until I finished the episode write-ups, but I realized I can't do that. So here's Episode 3. Oh, and expect some special guests next chapter, one of whom is there against Oliver's desires. **_

_**Finally, there will be some major changes in the focus of my stories, and those who have seen 3x01 know why. I've tried to be balanced, but I took a look on this site for good stories with that character and found sparsely any, while there is an overabundance of Felicity fics. Sorry, but I'm not gonna be writing Olicity any time soon. I will support the pairing on the show itself, and read Olicity fics, but I won't be writing them myself. If you want good ones, go to my favorites, or read stuff like "The Island", Kenyancougar's trilogy, and Rennie75's "Lessons" universe. **_

Chapter 4:

Lone Gunmen

"That is a rather peculiar way to introduce yourself," Moira said, as everyone else digested the rather violent introduction Oliver had had to his mentor, or at least the man they assumed was his mentor as he wore the same green hood that Oliver had sewn into his vigilante gear.

"When someone is fighting for survival, they develop a 'take down first, ask questions later' mentality," Malcolm replied, once more raising suspicions from all quarters. "Perhaps we should continue on? Unless there is something else that needs to be discussed at the moment?"

"Oh, I think there's a lot that needs to be discussed," Quentin said. "Like what Queen had to tell the rest of you that he couldn't include everyone else in, or that the _Gambit_ was sabotaged yet the Ice Queen over there never said anything."

"Dad. . . ." Laurel tried, but he waved her off.

"No, Laurel! Sara might be alive, but it doesn't change the fact that someone tried to kill Robert, and both Oliver and Sara got caught in the crossfire. When did you know, huh? At least tell me that?" Quentin's expression became a little more pained. "Did you know when you came to tell us about Sara? Did you know then that someone had killed them and you didn't tell us?"

"No, Quentin," Moira replied, her face stricken. "I only found out the truth much later. And there are forces at work that I just can't tell you about. Though I suspect Oliver will learn about them. Perhaps we should continue?"

Quentin, looking pained and disgruntled, nodded shortly, and Thea began the next set of memories.

_A man in leisurewear is standing beside a rooftop pool, talking on his cell phone. "Heh. Other than the bill I got handed this morning by my legal team, I'm feeling pretty good. Plus, now that this lawsuit's been settled, we can focus our attention on Unidac Industries." _

Moira and Malcolm both made certain to keep their expressions blank when Unidac Industries was mentioned, knowing that showing any sign of recognition (Unidac had yet to be announced as on the docket for the auction coming up) would raise suspicions. Moira figured Oliver would learn the truth at some point, but until then she had no desire to raise any further suspicions, and Malcolm was likely of the opinion that even if Oliver found out, he could talk him around. Malcolm was a silver-tongued viper if ever there was a person who embodied such a creature, as far as Moira was concerned.

_A moment later, after listening to whatever the person on the other end of the line says, the man (James Holder) says, "Ok. I'll see you in the office first thing." He shuts off the phone, then turns to see Oliver in his Hood gear standing there. "I have armed security inside," he tells Oliver nervously. "All I have to do is call out."  
_

"_Go ahead," Oliver says as he deposits the security guards' radios on the ground in front of him. "They can't hear you."_

Roy smirked at this, and Thea eyed him as surreptitiously as she could. She had noticed how the older Roy had glanced at her, and the emotion in those eyes. She didn't know quite what it was, but it was definitely not saying, "Your brother helped make me the man I am and I'm looking at his little sister". It was almost like they'd been 'together' at some point, which would be really weird, right?

Thea's surreptitious glances were not unnoticed by Laurel, who shook her head at the idea of Thea having the same attraction to 'bad boys' that she had had, and especially not unnoticed by her newly-discovered father and brother, who both had similar thoughts in their heads: _Oh, hell, no!_ Well, that was Tommy's. Malcolm's was more along the lines of calm cold reasoning: _if that little bastard touches my daughter, I'm going to do to him what I did to his father_. Alright, maybe not calm, but definitely cold reasoning. . ._  
_

"_What the hell do you want?" Holder asks. _

"_How many people died in those fires? How many?!" Oliver aims an arrow at the man he yells this. "The courts say you don't owe your victims anything. I disagree. James Holder You-" Before Oliver can finish, Holder receives a double-tap to the chest. Oliver dives behind a portion of the stone guardrail that acts as a bench and fires a couple of arrows in the direction of the shooter. Another shot rings out. Holder has fallen into the pool. _

_The shooter stops, apparently uninterested in continuing their fight, and Oliver finds that he's been grazed by a bullet. _

Roy had heard about those fires; his right hand trembled slightly as he focused his anger and remembered that Queen was confronting the man, and the guy ended up dead regardless. Above them, Arsenal watched his younger self and grimaced. He had begun doing that as he grew older and realized what the Glades had become, and the Mirakuru had made it much worse. He hoped that Oliver would take the younger Roy under his wing sooner, with pressure from the others there, but he remembered how Oliver had been those first two years.

_Back at the lair, Oliver has been treating the wound. "It's no surprise a man as corrupt as James Holder has more than one enemy." He stands, then collapses. Oliver grabs the gauze he was using even as he says in the mental thought process that is his tendency, "The bullet. Poison." _

These words sent a chill through Moira's veins, while Malcolm could not contain his disgust at an assassin who used such measures. The League of Assassins, however twisted, had a particular code of honor and the use of such weapons (or firearms in general) was frowned upon. While Malcolm was aware the Undertaking would likewise break the code of the League, he also knew that up until now, there was every chance the Undertaking would go off without a hitch.

However, with these people now being given the chance to stop him, stop what needed to happen, well. . . Malcolm grimaced again. Ra's Al'Ghul was not a man you trifled with easily. If the Undertaking was exposed by those here, or by Oliver, Malcolm would have to prepare for the possibility of faking his own death and keeping watch on his children from afar, until he had a chance to kill the Demon's Head himself.

_He goes to his Island trunk and pulls out a pouch of herbs and a small, hand-crafted bowl. He pours water into the bowl, quickly chews up some of the herbs, and then drinks them down with the water before collapsing to the ground.  
_

"What were those?" Thea muttered to herself. Her brother (half-brother, she reminded herself, glancing at the _other_ one in the room) had a hell of a lot of secrets in that trunk.

_In a flashback to the Island, Oliver is now awake in a cave, where his mysterious shooter is watching him. "Ahh," Oliver cries out his jars the arrow when turning to look at the shooter. "Who are you? Why did you shoot me?" The archer says nothing before breaking off the arrowhead to pull it out. "Aah!" _

Moira winced at hearing her son in pain, and she wasn't the only one. Laurel and Thea likewise flinched, and Roy had grimaced briefly. He admitted he had never had an arrow go through him, but he had been stabbed a couple times in fights, one time with a big-ass piece of glass.

_Oliver awakens in the present as his cell phone beeps, alerting him of the time. Back at the Queen Mansion, he finds Diggle standing in the entrance to the living room, where Moira and Walter are talking with Thea and a pair of patrolmen. "What happened? Thea okay?" _

_Diggle turns slightly and says quietly, "The cops brought her home. Her and some of her friends broke into a store, tried on some dresses last night. Lit up the breathalyzer like a Christmas tree." _

Moira closed her eyes with a soft groan. Thea kept her expression as clear of emotion as possible, while neither Tommy nor Laurel could say anything this time. After all, in this particular case, the teenager could throw their sins back in their faces and be in the right, especially since they hadn't really learned from their mistakes like Oliver clearly had.

_His tone takes on an amused, if exasperated quality. "So how was your evening, sir?" _

"_You mean after I said I had to go to the bathroom at dinner and never came back?" Oliver asks rhetorically. _

Tommy snickered at that one.

"_I guess from now on I'll be watching you pee," Diggle says with a hint of sarcasm. _

Tommy, unable to help himself, quipped, "That's just a bit disturbing. . ."

Laurel groaned at the thought that popped in her head and performed what was colloquially called a 'Gibbs smack' on Tommy, who winced but smiled all the same. _  
_

"_Thank you, officers," Walter says to the two patrolmen. "My wife and I appreciate it. I'll see you out."  
_

_As Walter escorts the two officers out, Oliver moves a little closer to his mother and sister. Moira is giving Thea a mini-lecture. "Last time it was public intoxication. This time breaking and entering. My, how we are moving up in the criminal world."_

Quentin chuckled and said, "Considering who she's got for a brother, you should count yourself lucky, Moira."

Moira gave the detective a look that suggested he was something disgusting she had found on the bottom of her shoe. She was quite aware in _this_ reality of what her son would be up to, but while she might have suspicions that Oliver was the vigilante she doubted her on-screen self was aware of Oliver's nightly activities. There was also the fact that Thea not only had Oliver and his example, but also Tommy now. She knew her daughter would take after one of them. Considering Malcolm's own liking for archery, she suspected her daughter would go with Oliver's path.

Somehow, that wasn't a comforting thought.

_"You know, when you pay off the store owner, you should check out the merchandise," Thea replies with a bit of snark. "They got some pretty killer outfits."  
_

"_Thea, go get ready for school," Moira tells her daughter._

_"Uh, you know, I was thinking of taking a sick day."  
_

"_Fine, then get some sleep," Moira says tiredly.  
_

"_You look like crap," Thea says with a smirk as she passes by Oliver. _

Quentin huffed and said, "Am I the _only_ responsible parent in this room?"

Laurel hid a scoff at that. She quite remembered how many times her father had covered up Sara's indiscretions. Quentin heard the scoff and grimaced briefly, hoping Laurel wouldn't bring that up. Luckily, it appeared Laurel wasn't in the mood to fight with him and focused on the screen again.

_Oliver turns to his mother with a look of disapproval on his face. "You're letting her play hooky?" _

Eyebrows popped at the difference the island had made in Oliver regarding even the most mundane things, and Moira felt a smile tug at her lips. It was good to see Oliver's willingness to take on those who had become corrupt had not tempered his concern for his sister, even if Thea would rather he not be so involved.

Thea was muttering something, but apparently Malcolm was able to hear it as he said, "Oh, I'm not sure if Oliver will be taking _that_ much time to keep an eye on you."

Thea gave her new-found father a look of skepticism and said drily, "Then you don't know Oliver very well." Thea was well aware that if any boyfriend she had tried something stupid, the new Oliver would probably put an arrow through them. (1)

_Moira raises a hand to forestall his objections. "When your sister gets like this, it's best to give her her space."  
_

"_She's testing you."  
_

"_Yes," Moira says, giving Oliver a look that appears half-amused, half-exasperated. "Who'd she learn that from?" _

"_Mom," Oliver says, moving forward a bit. "When I was her age, you and dad let me get away with murder. Looking back, I could have used less space and more parenting." Oliver walks away, missing the look of surprise and happiness on his mother's face.  
_

This was matched on both Malcolm and Moira's faces in the viewing room, and Quentin had to keep his features straight as he fought a surprised smile of his own. He'd never of thought he would see Oliver Queen, of all people, lecture others on responsibility.

"_It doesn't make sense," Quentin says, standing on the rooftop of Holder's building. _

_His partner, Lucas Hilton, looks over at him. "Holder fits the profile. Wealthy dirtbag.  
Red meat for the Hood. And we recovered at least one arrow."  
_

_Quentin nods. "Yeah, only this time the cause of death is a double tap through the heart and our perp doesn't use firearms."  
_

"_Maybe he's finally figured out there's easier ways to kill people than with a bow and arrow," Hilton replies. "It's like you said, the guy's a whackjob."  
_

_Another Oliver voice over. "The bullets were laced with curare, a rare and deadly poison, the killer's unique M.O. He's killed all over the world Chicago, Markovia, Corto Maltese. Interpol even has a codename for him Deadshot." An interlude with Deadshot tattooing Holder's name onto his chest is seen before going back to the lair. _

Sounds of disgust were heard from all present in the room, and there wasn't a single person who doubted what Oliver was about to say next.

"_I was prepared to give James Holder a chance to right his wrongs, but this Deadshot has no morality, no honor, no code. He doesn't kill for justice, which makes him as dangerous as anyone on my list. In fact, it puts him right at the top."_

There it was; though Moira now worried about her son because he would be crossing his bow with a notorious (and clearly sick-in-the-mind) assassin. Still, better he be fighting someone like that than crossing bows with Malcolm's black-clad enforcer. Moira had only met the Dark Archer, as some called him, once before, and that had been during a 'follow-up' not long after she agreed to help Malcolm.

_Oliver, Tommy, and Diggle are lookin around the remnants of the steel factory's main entrance. "So what do you think?" Oliver says, gesturing around. "Great spot for a nightclub or what?" _

Malcolm's eyebrows shot up at that, as did Moira's, but it didn't take long for either to figure out what Oliver was planning. While Moira gave an exasperated groan, Malcolm had to hide a smile. Oliver was doing a very good job at using his old lifestyle to cover for his new one. He looked forward to seeing how the young man became so capable, if only because any insight he got could be used to change the younger man's perceptions, twist him until he was allied with Malcolm instead of standing against him. (2)

"_Sweet," Tommy replies. "Though I got to tell you, man, if you're thinking about calling it Queens, I don't think you're gonna get the clientele that you were hoping for."  
_

Thea snickered at this, and even Moira hid a smile. Laurel shook her head at Tommy, amused.

_Oliver, distracting Tommy, points in a random direction. "Private office."  
_

"_For the private one-on-one meetings, I would imagine," Tommy replies with a grin. _

And there was the Tommy that Laurel didn't like.

_"Hopefully the occasional two-on-one meeting," Oliver says, continuing to portray what people expect him to be.  
_

Thea wondered if perhaps Laurel could patent her Scowls and Looks.

"_Man, are you sure you want to do this?" Tommy asks seriously. "It's not like you really have any experience in running a well, running anything. How about tomorrow night the two of us, we go and scope out the competition. There's a new club opening downtown. It's called Poison. Max Fuller owns it."  
_

"_Max Fuller?" Oliver asks, trying not grin._

_Tommy hums an affirmative reply. _

_"I slept with his fiancé," Oliver says, losing his battle with his grin. _

"Oh, dear," Moira muttered, rubbing her temple.

_Tommy, likewise grinning, says, "Yeah, before the wedding."  
_

"_It was at the rehearsal dinner," Oliver chokes out.  
_

Roy's eyebrows popped up. Seriously, what had made that kind of guy into the person they were now seeing? Laurel, meanwhile, had her eyes narrowed. Somehow, Oliver must've forgotten to mention _that_ one. Exactly how many times had he cheated on her other than with Sara? (3)

"_The rehearsal dinner is technically before the wedding," Tommy chuckles. "Right? And besides, who stays mad at a castaway?" He gets an alert on his cell phone and grimaces. "Ah, dammit, I got to roll. Anyway, I'll see you later, man. Good place." On the way out, he pats Diggle on the arm with a "See ya."  
_

_As Tommy takes off, Oliver turns to Diggle. "So what do you think?" _

"_Well, I'm here to provide security, sir, not a commentary," Diggle replies.  
_

"_Oh, come on, Dig, do me a favor. Speak freely, please."  
_

"_Well, this is The Glades, right? Your rich white friends wouldn't come to this neighborhood on a bet."  
_

Tommy coughed, pointing out that technically speaking, he was one of those 'rich white friends' and he frequented the Glades, albeit with a suspicious eye. Malcolm frowned at hearing this, and vowed to stick a tracker on his son's car so that he could keep an eye on him. He had already lost one person he loved to the Glades; he wouldn't lose _either_ of his children. Which reminded him. . . . he would need to find some way of tracking Thea, too.

"_I am Oliver Queen, right? People would stand in line for 3 hours if I opened a club," Oliver points out.  
_

"_And no one who actually lives in The Glades would see a penny of those cover charges," Diggle issues as a rebuttal.  
_

"_So we make it a successful business, we gentrify the neighborhood," Oliver replies with a smile to Dig.  
_

Moira hid the wince that wanted to erupt from her at Oliver's words. Such an action, no matter how clueless it might have been, would still put Oliver in Malcolm's crosshairs. Moira shifted a glance to Malcolm, who was watching the scene with nothing more than a congenial expression, the one he used when he wanted to appear open and sincere. She would have to speak with him later about all this; she had already lost Robert to Malcolm's need to 'control the situation', and she would not lose another member of her family.

"_I was wondering when we would get to that," Diggle replied. "The white knight swooping in to save the disenfranchised. And all by his lonesome with no help from anybody."  
_

Laurel coughed. This bodyguard was certainly open with his opinions when allowed. Perhaps he could help change Oliver.

"_Wow," Oliver says. "You don't think very much of me, do you?" _

Thea rolled her eyes at her brother's knack for understatements.

"_No, sir, actually, I have a very high regard for how __**perceptive**__ you are. Sir." Diggle turns and leaves with a bit of a repressed smile. _

_Oliver turns to the factory itself. "The nightclub will conceal my base underneath and provide an alibi for where Oliver Queen spends his nights."  
_

Those who hadn't quite come to that conclusion (primarily Roy, Tommy, and Laurel) popped their eyebrows up. Thea knew her brother well enough to know the nightclub _would_ be the way he would disguise his actions, because it was the exact type of thing he would've been doing if he _hadn't_ become a trained killer on that island. Quentin, meanwhile, was one of the more intelligent detectives from the SCPD, and he knew how perps thought. Despite the good Queen _might_ be doing, he was still a criminal in the end, and criminals liked to have a comfort zone to fall back on.

_At CNRI, Oliver is concentrating on something on her computer as Joanna comes up to her. "Hey. Do you have the depo's on the Jergens case?" Laurel jumps, and moves to close the window, but not before Joanna sees that it's an article about Oliver opening a nightclub. _

Laurel mutters under her breath about the troubles of an overly-observant colleague. Tommy's expression was halfway between amused and irritated.

"_Yeah, they're around here somewhere." Laurel replies as she stands and looks around for the paperwork. When she turns back, Joanna looks pointedly at her and the computer. "I was just surfing the 'net," Laurel says defensively.  
_

Thea coughed and said, "For a lawyer, you really can't lie well." Roy sniggered at this, gaining a glare from both Lances and a part-amused look from Tommy. Malcolm, meanwhile, gave the young up-and-coming apprentice of Oliver an inscrutable glance, which the young street hood noticed. He didn't flinch, despite knowing what Malcolm thought of him; good, at least there was an inner strength to him. Still, that wouldn't be much help if he even _thought_ of pursuing a relationship with Thea.

"_Really?" Joanna asks._

"_Joanna, I'm over him," Laurel says. After a moment, during which she sees Joanna's expression, she says, "And you don't believe me."  
_

_Laurel begins walking away as Joanna follows her, saying, "Well, I would have if I wouldn't have just caught you trolling for articles on him!" _

"_I wasn't trolling!" Laurel protests. _

"_I don't want to have to be the one to remind you that he cheated on you, Laurel. With your sister," Joanna says.  
_

"_I appreciate your self control," Laurel replies, with just a hint of bitchiness (the good kind though).  
_

"_You're __**stuck**__ in the past," Joanna continues, now with a full head of steam. "And the reason I know this is the fact that the only physical relationship you've had since Oliver is with his best friend. It is time to move on. It is past time."  
_

Quentin was amused and said, "Listen to her, Laurel. She's got a good head on her shoulders." He got more than one dirty glance from those present. In fact, the only glance that wasn't dirty was from Harper, who gave him an amused glance as if to say, 'and here I thought _I _was out of my depth in this group.'

"_I've been busy," Laurel says, trying to avoid the issue. "I work a lot."  
_

"_Ok. That's got to stop. So we are going out tonight. And-and we are going to have some shots and we are going to dance with men that we don't know and we are going to stay out way too late."_

"Oh! Jergens depo's," Laurel says, finding the paperwork and handing it to Joanna. "I really don't think I can go out tonight," she says to try and not have to deal with it.

_Joanna smiles and says, "It is adorable that you actually think I'm giving you a choice."  
_

Tommy and Thea both snickered at this, with Moira and Malcolm both giving their off-spring amused glances. Despite the rather tense situation Thea and Tommy had with them at the moment, it was clear the relationship between the siblings themselves was not affected. That was good; now it was just a matter of getting them comfortable with Moira and Malcolm again.

Moira was quite certain she would have to deal with her daughter venting at her before the night was out, while Malcolm was quite certain that Tommy would try to hit him at least once. In all honesty, Malcolm hoped his son would show he had the iron of the Merlyns in him and punch him. Malcolm would allow it, this once, if Tommy had the guts to do it. (4)

_At the Queen Mansion, Thea is getting ready for school when Moira comes in. "I want you to come home right after school."  
_

"_Oh, can't," Thea replies. "Margot and I are going to go to the mall."  
_

"_What, more shopping?" the sarcasm is heavy in Moira's reply. "Tell Margot you'll have to cancel. You're grounded for two weeks," she adds with a decisive nod.  
_

_Thea, looking surprised and a bit put out, says, "Grounded? I've __**never**__ been grounded."  
_

Quentin snorted at this, and Moira raised an eyebrow at the detective, who ignored her.

"_Well, you've never committed larceny before," Moira says.  
_

"_Since when do you care?" Thea asks snidely. _

"_I've always cared," Moira states defensively. "I'm your mother."  
_

_Thea, not wanting to lose the amount of freedom she's had, continues to argue. "Look, we've had a good thing going on the last five years. Why mess with that now?" _

Malcolm muttered something under his breath, but it appeared that Thea had as good as hearing as her biological father as she herself snorted. "What? You expect anything else from her?"

Malcolm eyed his daughter with a stern expression. "Regardless of the choices your mother has made, Thea, she has never done anything but love you. Caught up as you were in your own issues, I would advise you not judge your mother when she has had her own trials and tribulations the past five years." Several were surprised at the strict, almost paternal (or completely paternal, depending on your knowledge) tone that he had taken with Thea.

Thea, not wanting to air the Merlyn-Queen family drama currently going on with the Lances and that kinda cute guy from the Glades, just sat back and turned her attention back to the screen; Moira gave Malcolm a grateful look, as well as one which said, "Welcome to the realm of parenting a teenage girl." Or, more accurately, "Welcome to every parent's brand of hell."

The only person who recognized that look for what it was, Quentin, kept silent. He had suspected as much since the future Oliver had taken the Queens and Merlyns to another part of the station, especially since it solved the one mystery that bugged him: how in the hell Moira and Robert Queen, two blondes, had had a brunette daughter. Up until now, Quentin had wondered if it was simply the result of the rare occurrence when an ancestor's gene became more dominant.

_Moira, seemingly more awake to the faults of her own parenting skills, says, "No, we are paying off store owners to keep your record clean, so clearly, it hasn't been working."  
_

"_And you're going to teach me," Thea replies scornfully, before realization dawns. "It's Oliver, isn't it? His judgmental hypocrisy is rubbing off on you."  
_

"_No, I don't need Oliver to teach me how to parent you," Moira said, her tone more firm now. "You'll be home by 4:00."  
_

"_Or what? You're going to call the cops on me? Tell them I say hi," Thea replies before leaving Moira standing in the room, looking uncertain of herself.  
_

Malcolm bit the inside of his cheek. Something told him he would be spending _a lot_ of time as the Dark Archer just keeping his daughter out of trouble. He knew all too well how much Thea emulated _both_ her brothers (though in this case, pre-Island Oliver and the mask he was showing them rather than the real Oliver).

_In an alleyway, Oliver looks for evidence of the shooter. He climbs up the wall and finds one of them, pulling it out. _

Despite already knowing Oliver was quite athletic, his parkour and climbing skills still brought a few raised eyebrows. In particular how he was able to balance himself while digging a bullet out of the wall.

_Back in the lair, Oliver completes a renditioning of the bullet as the scene switches to the police station, with Hilton and Quentin. "Got ballistics back on the Holder murder," Hilton says as he speaks with Quentin, a file between them. "They pulled two 7.62 millimeter bullets out of him. According to the stippling and size of the entry wound, they estimate the shots were fired from approximately a hundred yards away."  
_

"_A hundred yards?" Quentin says skeptically. "What, so the Hood shoots him from another building, goes over to his place, he takes out his security, and then he fires off a few arrows?" _

"It almost sounds as though you're defending Oliver's vigilante persona, Detective," Malcolm said, earning a glare from Quentin. This did nothing to faze Malcolm, who simply kept his gaze fixed on the events unfolding on-screen. It was very rare that Malcolm was allowed to give back-handed comments, and the detective proved an amusing target, something it seemed the young Mr. Harper also thought if the glares the two exchanged on occasion were any indicator.

_Hilton continues, "And according to his tox screen, his blood contained high concentrations of strychnos toxifera."  
_

"_What?" _

"_Curare. It's a kind of poison."  
_

"_Oh," Quentin says. "Okay, so now we switch from arrows to sniper bullets and poison." He shakes his head. "I'm not buying it."  
_

"_We still found arrows on the scene," Hilton reminds his partner. "Solid evidence the Hood was there." Quentin begins walking out of the precinct. "Where you going?" _

"_I'm going to get my own evidence," Quentin replies. _

_Back at the lair, Oliver is looking up more information. "The money trail leads back to the Bratva the Russian mob. Finally some good luck." _

The fact that Oliver had attained the rank of a captain in the Bratva somewhere along the way during his exile was pushed to the forefront of everyone's minds once more, and everyone sat up straighter or leaned forward a little.

_Quentin is seen looking on the rooftop, putting the pieces together as he stares out across the city to the rooftop the sniper shot from. _

Laurel was struck once again with the realization that if you stripped away their animosity and the fact that they were on opposite sides of the law (technically speaking), her father and Oliver were a lot more alike now than they used to be. She recalled what the much-older Oliver had said to her father after revealing Sara was still alive, and had to fight down the smirk. Her father was probably going to make a big deal out of her working with Oliver (because she was sure she would be before the memories finished) and she was going to enjoy pointing out he would be doing the same.

_Oliver, wearing a ballcap, enters a mechanic's shop. The owner asks, "Can I help you?" _

_Oliver, in Russian, replies, "I'm looking for Alexi Leonov." _

"_There is no one here by that name," the Russian replies. _

"_Not in your shop," Oliver replies. "Beneath it." As one of the 'mechanics' comes over, Oliver pulls down his shirt to reveal the tattoo. "I am Bratva." _

_The Russian, Alexi, gives a small bow. "Pleased to meet you."  
_

_They are now descending into the basement. "I apologize," Alexi says. "We meant no disrespect to a captain. Particularly an American one. So. . . How can I be of assistance?" _

"_I'm in the market for a hired gun. Someone the organization's used before. His calling card is a 7.62 millimeter gun laced with curare," Oliver says.  
_

"_I know no man who uses such tools," Alexi admits.  
_

"_But you can find out who does," Oliver replies.  
_

_Alexi gives a thin-lipped smile and pours two glasses of vodka. "First, we will drink to each other's health, then I will look into the identity of this man you seek." The two drink. "Ahh. I will also confirm that you are really Bratva captain. Should this not be the case, I will send my mechanic here to find you and kill you and your family." Oliver keeps a stoic expression on his face at this threat.  
_

Moira closed her eyes as it now became obvious that her family would always end up involved in illegal activities, whether they be those that she and Robert became involved in, her daughter's petty theft and intoxication issues, or Oliver's mysterious connections to the Russian mob.

_In a hotel room, Deadshot is inscribing another name onto his body as the news reports on his latest kill. "Carl Rasmussen was found shot to death in his home earlier this evening. The police will not comment if there's a connection between Mr. Rasmussen's death and the murder of James Holder a few nights ago. Mr. Rasmussen leaves behind a wife and three children."  
_

Once more, grimaces of disgust shot across the features of those gathered in the room.

_At the Queen Mansion, Walter and Moira are being spoken to by Quentin and Hilton. "It's a great loss," Walter is saying. "Carl was a titan."  
_

"_A titan who was looking to buy out a company called Unidac Industries?" Hilton asks. _

"_Well, industries are something of a misnomer. UI's recent activity was actually looking into alternative energy."_

_Quentin says, "I think the point my partner is trying to make is that Carl Rasmussen was the second bidder this week to lose his life."  
_

"_Are you implying something, Detective?" Moira asks pointedly. _

"_Well, only that your husband's looking into buying Unidac Industries and the competition seems to be dropping like flies," Quentin replies.  
_

"_And I'm sure your veiled accusation has nothing to do with how you feel about my family?" Moira asks pointedly once more. _

"_Unidac's in receivership, Detective," Walter says, to avoid confrontations. "Ownership is subject to a liquidation auction, so that means there are many prospective buyers. And the auction's tomorrow, so if I was taking out the competition, I have a lot of killing to do in a very short amount of time."  
_

"_We're just making the rounds with the interested buyers. Let them know to be careful," Hilton, likewise looking to avoid conflict.  
_

"_Oh, yes," Moira replies, her voice laden with sarcasm. "And I'm overwhelmed that Detective Lance is concerned for our safety."  
_

Malcolm's lips twitched with amusement at Moira's words. She had a sharp tongue when she wished to employ it.

"_Well Thank you for your concern, gentlemen," Walter says. Gesturing to the nearby Diggle, he says, "Our security consultant, Mr. Diggle, is taking all the necessary precautions."  
_

"_Yeah. Right," Quentin replies, a bit surly. "Well, if you need us, we're just a 911 call away."  
_

_At the new club, Poison, Oliver is with Tommy in line. Tommy laughs as he says, "Oh, my, this is going to be killer."  
_

_Oliver, looking a mix of amused and exasperated, says, "If Max Fuller sees me here, I agree."  
_

"Ah, but for whom?" Malcolm mused aloud, his tone cynically amused at the idea. Tommy shook his head at his father's odd comment, and decided he really didn't want to think about what Malcolm meant by that.

"_Ah, if you want to run a business, you've got to take a few risks," Tommy replies and he and Oliver enter.  
_

_When Diggle tries to follow, the bouncer puts a hand up and says, "I don't see your name on the list."  
_

"_Mr. Queen," Diggle calls out, his tone of voice shows he suspects what's coming.  
_

"_Oh!" Oliver comes back over and, patting the bouncer, points at Diggle and says, "I have never seen this guy before in my life. Ever." Diggle's expression is a bit sour as the two younger men enter the club. _

Tommy and Thea both snickered.

_Inside the club, Oliver and Tommy take in the sights. At the bar, Laurel is shaking her head at Joanna and turns back to order another drink.  
_

"_Oh, wow!" Tommy says, coming up by her. "Doesn't you going out and having fun violate some kind of law, you know, like the ones that are carved on a stone tablet?" _

Laurel shot Tommy a Look, and he just smiled at her in reply. She shook her head in exasperation.

"_That's cute, Tommy," Laurel replies, cynically amused by the two men's presence.  
_

"_Thanks," Tommy says.  
_

"_I can see you two are up to your old hunting patterns."  
_

"_Just seeing what passes for fun in Starling City after five years," Oliver replies.  
_

"_Ah. Well, I'm sure you'll find that it just hasn't been the same without you."  
_

_Thea, very wasted and dressed in normal clubbing attire, comes out of nowhere and greets Oliver. "Big brother! She hugs him then backs away slowly with a, "Oh! I am so wasted right now, there is there is two of you."_

_Tommy and Laurel, sensing a sibling pissing contest, turn slowly and try to ignore the Queen duo.  
_

Thea grumbled under her breath, knowing that both her parents (even if one of them was only a sperm donor) and her half-brother were giving her looks in the room, and thus ratcheting up the suspicions of those who hadn't been privy to Oliver's revelation about the rather twisted Queen-Merlyn family tree.

"_I thought you were grounded," Oliver says, trying to keep her steady.  
_

"_I am," Thea replies. "And thank you thank you for that, by the way."  
_

"_You're done for the night," Oliver says firmly._

_"Oh, what are you going to do? Tell mom?"_

"_Thea! You are hanging with the wrong people."  
_

"_You're one to talk," Thea says, and Tommy and Laurel begin to turn, looking just a little bit startled. "How much do you know about your own so-called friends over here?" _

"Oh, boy," Tommy muttered. Laurel grimaced; even though they knew that Oliver had seen the two of them together while on one of his patrols, she wondered how they would handle this on-screen. Considering how she was handling Oliver's return on-screen so far, she didn't think it would go all that well.

_Tommy tries to delay the inevitable. "Oh, Thea, maybe you should-" _

"_Tommy, I think your BFF has a right to know," Thea replies back snappily, or as snappily as someone who's wasted can snap.  
_

"_Thea, let's go," Oliver says, trying to pull her away.  
_

_Unfortunately, Thea is not to be deterred in her need to make everyone as miserable as she is. "Well, I guess they never told you that they've been screwing while you were gone." Oliver's expression is one of acceptance, not betrayal, but neither Thea nor Tommy notices.  
_

"_Look, man, I-" Tommy begins. _

"_Tommy, it's okay," Oliver says, before grabbing his sister by the arm. "You and me, we're done for the night."  
_

_Thea jerks away from him. "Take your hands off of me. You're not my father. And you're barely my brother." Thea storms off, and Oliver is looking frustrated.  
_

Thea grimaced again, this time with guilt at what she would say to Oliver if that same situation presented itself. Moira likewise grimaced. Tommy, meanwhile, was giving his little sister a frown and decided that they would need to talk later.

"_Well, look at this," a voice says. "Oliver Queen." Oliver turns to see Max Fuller standing there with two bruisers.  
_

"_Max Fuller," Oliver says, giving the man a clearly fake smile. "How you been?" _

"_Happy you drowned," Max replies. Oliver's smile drops. _

Roy snickered, and this attracted the attention of the others in the room. "Something funny, Harper?" Quentin asked.

"Just thinking about what would happen if Fuller was on Mr. Queen's list," Roy replied. "But I'm guessing he's not."

Moira and Malcolm kept silent.

_Now led away from the crowd, Oliver is behind a curtained area. He turns and says, "Hey, Max-" only to get a blow to the jaw for his trouble. On the ground, he visibly restrains himself from reacting how he would with a scumbag._

Roy snickered again. Quentin ignored the street hood that played some part in Queen's life after his return. Far as he was concerned, it didn't change who they were. One was a billionaire bottom feeder and the other was a street thug; neither of them were worthy of the title 'hero', something he suspected many considered the two.

"_Get him up!" Max tells his bruisers. _

_Tommy intervenes when the two men grab Oliver, pushing them away while saying, "Hey, let him go, let him go! Hey, I said let him go!" _

Malcolm failed to hide his surprise at his son's actions. It wasn't often that Tommy showed a backbone, but it was clear he did have one. Whether he would ever show it aside from false bravado was another story. Perhaps Oliver would help in bringing his son closer to being worthy of being considered Malcolm's son, because right now Tommy was pathetic.

"_Told you he was going to be pissed," Oliver tells Tommy from behind him.  
_

Tommy grinned. That was something the old Oliver would've said, and he could tell Oliver was not play-acting on this occasion.

"_Back off, Merlyn," Fuller, his arms crossed and looking amused, says. "This isn't your problem."  
_

"_You want to get to him?" Tommy says, keeping between the two bruisers and Oliver. "You've got to go through me." Seeing the two bruisers begin to shift into fighting stances, Tommy glances back at Oliver with a somewhat freaked out, "Wow, they are probably going to get through me."  
_

Laurel and Thea both shook their heads at Tommy's actions. He didn't quite think things through.

_The Merlyn and Queen boys engage in a brief brawl with the two. Oliver purposely downplays his fighting skills while Tommy is clearly ineffective as a fighter, while Max watches. _

Malcolm shook his head, and Tommy grimaced at his father's lack of approval or _any_ feeling for his own son.

_Max finds himself on the receiving end of a beating, though, when Laurel intervenes, grabbing him from behind, giving him a couple kidney shots, and sending him sprawling to the ground. _

Thea whistled and said, "Nice one, Laurel."

Laurel grinned at the younger girl, and said, "If you want, I can give you a few pointers."

"Maybe," Thea said, before turning back to the screen. Considering that so far Laurel's only successful fight had been with a rich snob with his back turned to her, Thea would wait and see how things played out.

"_So is this over, Max?" she asks, gesturing around them. "Or are you going to have your boys pound on me next?" _

_Max stands up, and in a sniveling voice of a toddler when events haven't gone as he wanted, whines, "You three consider yourselves banned for life. Get the hell out of my place!" _

"Aww, poor baby," Thea mocked. "Do you need a bottle and a blankie with that?" Tommy and Laurel snickered, and even the parents had to hide a smile. They recognized Oliver's influence on his sister. Roy's lips tugged up into a grin. For a spoiled princess, Thea Queen sure had a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of humor.

_As a last defiant statement as Max and his three men leave, Tommy calls out, "Your club sucks anyway."  
_

"_You guys ok?" Laurel asks as she comes up to the two men. _

"_Where'd you learn to do that?" Oliver asks, looking impressed. _

"_Cop dad, remember? He made me take self defense classes."  
_

_As Laurel begins walking away, Oliver says. "Laurel. What Thea said-" _

"_Oliver, Tommy and I don't need your blessing," Laurel says, turning and giving Oliver yet another Look. "And I don't need your forgiveness."_

"Ouch," Roy said dryly, ignoring another Look from Laurel. Above them, the future Roy snickered at his younger self. He remembered that time she had him in the interrogation room and he just gave her smart-ass replies. Then Oliver had begun taking him under his wing, as both the Arrow and as himself. He remembered what Oliver said then, and wondered how those down below would react to the bond that would eventually be forged between the two of them, even if said bond was constantly being torn at by their enemies.

_In a flashback, Oliver is seen sleeping in the cave. He wakes up and sees Yao Fei is also asleep. He struggles to stand, and then hurries out of the cave. Running through the woods, he finds himself caught up in a net like a wild animal. _

_Back in the present, Diggle leads to the two men into the Big Belly Burger. Diggle, waving at one of the waitresses, says, "Why don't you guys take a seat, and I will grab a couple of burgers and some ice for those faces."_

"The girl's pretty cute," Tommy says, glancing at the waitress.

_Diggle gives Tommy a Look of his own and says, "That's my sister in law."  
_

"_Who I will never speak to or look at, ever," Tommy amends his statement. "Gonna grab a booth." He hurries away.  
_

"Seems Tommy's finally met someone who can curb his libido," Moira murmured to Malcolm, ignoring her daughter's snicker at those words. Malcolm nodded in agreement; perhaps he should bring Mr. Diggle onboard as Tommy's bodyguard since Moira was unlikely to hire the man herself this time around.

"_She's not wearing a wedding ring," Oliver notices. "Brother out of the picture?" _

_Diggle, his expression somewhat blank but with a hint of regret, says, "Yeah, you could say that." Oliver moves to meet up with Tommy while Diggle moves to speak to his sister-in-law. "Hey you," Diggle says.  
_

"_So sweet of you to adopt two white boys," Carly says, grinning at him. "They need a good role model."  
_

"_That's my client, Oliver Queen," Diggle replies.  
_

"_Looks like you're doing a bang up job protecting him," Carly replies, glancing at the two bruised men.  
_

"_Mmm," Diggle replies, non-committal.  
_

Moira shook her head and wondered how she would react to Mr. Diggle's less-than-stellar handling of what she likely thought to be an easy job without knowing her son's capabilities.

_At the booth, Tommy's looking guilty as he says, "Look, man, about Laurel. I was going to tell you. I was just trying to figure out the right way."  
_

"_To tell somebody that you slept with their girlfriend after they went missing and were then presumed dead," Oliver says, then gives Tommy a smile. "What, there's no greeting card for that?" Tommy lets out a laugh and the two enjoy the laugh for a moment. _

_Tommy, looking a bit less guilty, says, "Look it was wrong," Oliver goes to interrupt again, and Tommy steams ahead with, "And I'm sorry."  
_

"_Tommy," Oliver says. "I was dead."  
_

"_No, man, you were with Laurel," Tommy says, adamant in owning up to his mistakes. "And whether you were dead, or as it turns out, alive on a deserted island, you are my friend. And me being with Laurel violated that friendship in about 50 different ways."  
_

Malcolm had to approve of his son's willingness to own up to his mistakes, and he gave Tommy a nod of appreciation. Despite their current animosity, Tommy was still gratified to receive that nod, though he wasn't sure how he felt about it. What exactly did his dad want from him? Did he want another Thea or Oliver? Why couldn't he accept that Tommy, when not drinking, wanted to honor his mother's memory, and show kindness to others rather than cruelty?

"_Thank you," Oliver says, sincerely. "But it's okay."  
_

_Back at the counter, Carly asks Diggle, "How dangerous is this gig, anyway?" _

"_It's a cakewalk, Carly, don't worry," Diggle replies.  
_

"_Too late. Or have you forgotten this job got your brother killed? Because, Dig, I haven't. I can't," Carly says.  
_

_Back at the booth, Tommy is looking at Oliver oddly. "You are being really chill about this."  
_

"_I-" Oliver begins, before his cell phone rings. He answers it. "Hello?" He says something in Russian and then puts the phone to his chest. "It's a Russian model calling me," he tells Tommy. "Can I have a minute, please?" _

Laurel muttered something uncomplimentary about Oliver's cover story under her breath. Tommy showed he had the Merlyn ears when he snickered at what she had said, and she gave him a Look before turning back to the screen.

"_I can see now why you were able to be so chill. Enjoy." Tommy gets up. _

Laurel raised a pointed eyebrow at Tommy, who flushed at the unspoken message.

_Oliver says to Alexi Leonov, "So I checked out?" _

_Alexi replies, "You did. His name is Floyd Lawton. I have address. Where he stayed last time, he was in Starling City. But that is all."  
_

"_Let's hope he's a creature of habit," Oliver says, pulling out a pen and grabbing a napkin to write on. "Go."  
_

"_You'll leave us out of this, yes?" Alexi asks. "Assuming Mr. Lawton doesn't kill you first."_

Moira mentally prepared herself for another of her son's fight scenes.

_In his hotel room, Floyd Lawton can be seen studying plans for a building while he adjusts a wrist-mounted firearm. He hears a creak in the hallway. Outside, Oliver has arrived in Hood gear and, arming his bow, kicks the door open, firing a series of arrows into the room before diving out of the way of Lawton's gunfire. Lawton uses the table and bed in the room as cover as he grabs his gear. Oliver fires another arrow before ducking away from Lawton's final volley of bullets. Lawton gets out of the hotel room via fire escape. _

_Oliver enters, and finds the laptop that Lawton was working on. _

_At Queen Consolidated, Oliver enters and finds Felicity Smoak hard at work, sucking on a cherry pop as she does so. He tilts his head slightly, before saying, "Ahem." She jumps. "Felicity Smoak? Hi. I'm Oliver Queen."  
_

"_Of course," she stutters out. "I know who you are, you're Mr. Queen."  
_

"_No," Oliver replies. "Mr. Queen was my father."  
_

"_Right, but he's dead. I mean, he drowned. But you didn't, which means you could come down to the I.T. department and listen to me babble. Which will end. In 3, 2, 1. . . ." Felicity trails off, turning around for a moment, before turning back and looking attentively at Oliver._

Thea snickered and Moira's lips twitched, while Laurel eyed the I.T. girl on the screen speculatively. Either the woman had a crush on Oliver (which wasn't all that hard considering how attractive he had been prior to the Island, much less now) or she just had no brain-mouth filter.

_Oliver places the laptop on Felicity's desk and says, "I'm having some trouble with my computer and they told me that you were the person to come and see." Seeing Felicity looking it over, particularly the bullet holes in the casing, he says, "I was at my coffee shop surfing the web and I spilt a latte on it."  
_

"_Really?" she asks skeptically. _

"_Yeah. . . ." Oliver says, clearly aware that it's a bad cover story.  
_

"_'Cause these look like bullet holes," Felicity says, fingering one of said holes.  
_

"_My coffee shop is in a bad neighborhood," Oliver says, a bit too quickly. Felicity gives him a look that screams, 'You can do better than that, frat-boy'. _

Tommy eyed Laurel, who was beginning to look alarmed. Being the social creatures that they were when not involved in whatever little drama was going on between them, both Tommy and Laurel recognized the instant chemistry between Oliver and this Felicity Smoak. Every time Oliver and Laurel had been together on screen, there had been a tension, but it was mostly filled with grief with some remnants of their feelings for one another. But this. . . this was completely free of the tension, and there was a definite 'possible couple aspect' to this.

Moira also noted the chemistry between her son and Ms. Smoak and vowed to do a background check on the woman before realizing that it probably wouldn't be needed if her suspicions that Ms. Smoak would become an important player were correct. Her son was many things, but brilliant with computers was not among them. If Ms. Smoak helped him recover the data from Deadshot's computer, she was quite certain that Oliver would indeed be seeking out Ms. Smoak's aid far more often.

Thea, meanwhile, was snickering at the way her brother and this Felicity were interacting. She knew exactly how her brother would've reacted five years ago, and she wondered how long it would take for that part of him to resurface.

Malcolm, on the other hand, was eying the scene with a speculative gleam in his eye. If things played out as many people here suspected. . . . well, Ms. Smoak just might be adequate leverage against Oliver.

"_If there is anything that you can salvage from it, I would really appreciate it."  
_

"_Mm-hmm," Felicity says, taking the laptop and beginning to work on it.  
_

_At the Queen Mansion, Moira enters Thea's room and finds her sitting on her bed, in her pajamas. "Oh. Well, good, you're here."  
_

"_I'm under house arrest, remember?" Thea asks.  
_

"_Do you want to wear the Calvin Klein or the Zac Posen?" Moira asks, pulling said dresses from Thea's closet. _

_Thea, looking confused, asks, "For dinner? I was just going to wear pajamas."  
_

"_To Walter's stock auction," Moira corrects.  
_

"_I think I'd rather be grounded," Thea replies.  
_

"_No, it's important that you come."  
_

"_Important to whom?" _

"_To me," Moira replies. Seeing Thea's skeptical expression, she sighs and comes over to sit beside her daughter. "All right, listen to me. When you were four years old, you came home one day with a cat. It was a stray, it was filthy, and it was mean. But you stood there and you declared that it was coming to live with us. Your father came home from the office and he saw what was going on, and he sat you down and he explained to you that the cat was in fact a tiger and that we needed to get it home. And somehow you understood. Robert was always so good at getting through to you. I- I was always so jealous of that." It is clear that this has not only affected Moira emotionally, but also Thea, whose eyes are glistening with tears.  
_

"_I. . . You never talk about him. Dad. That's the first time you've talked about him in years," Thea says, her voice breaking slightly.  
_

Moira grimaced, guilt once more flooding her as she was confronted with her failings as a parent, but also anger as she thought of how much of her time had been monopolized by Malcolm, the man who was truly responsible for Robert's death, even if it had been Robert's hand that ended his own life. Laurel and Tommy likewise felt uncomfortable with guilt, having gotten lost in their own trials after Oliver and Sara's 'deaths'.

"_Well, I think you and I have gotten into some bad habits. There's been a lot that has changed recently, Thea, and I think that maybe this can change, too." The two exchange smiles.  
_

_At Queen Consolidated, Felicity has managed to recover the data from Lawton's computer. _

"Wow, that girl is smart," Thea remarked, having been thinking over what her mother had said, both here and on-screen, but also observing the goings-on in the memories. She had begun to wonder how Ollie, even one in the future, had gotten so much information and memories, because not all the scenes they were viewing had had Oliver in them.

"Indeed," Moira replied, exchanging a quick glance with Malcolm, who was watching the events on-screen closely, and dearly wished she hadn't. She recognized the calculating look in Malcolm's eyes and she felt her fear for Ms. Smoak skyrocket. If this woman got caught up in Oliver's endeavors, Malcolm would target her for his enforcer if she got too close. Then again, Moira reminded herself as rational thought processes regained control, if Oliver did learn of the Undertaking and at least attempted to stop it, if not managing to do so, those here would learn about it and that could force Malcolm to abandon his plans.

"_It looks like blueprints."  
_

"_Do you know what of?" Oliver asks. _

"_The exchange building."  
_

"_Never heard of it," Oliver replies.  
_

"_It's where the Unidac Industries auction is scheduled to take place." Felicity gives Oliver a suspicious look. "I thought you said that was your laptop."  
_

Laurel snickered at this. Whoever this woman was, she wasn't letting Oliver get away with any bullshit stories, though she had to wonder if he was using such stories on purpose. She, like Malcolm (though she was unaware of this), could tell that Oliver was being deliberately suspicious with Mr. Diggle, and now it appeared he would be the same way with this Felicity Smoak.

"_Yes."  
_

"_Look, I don't want to get in the middle of some Shakespearian family drama thing," Felicity says quickly.  
_

"_What?" Oliver asks, looking surprised. _

"_Mr. Steele marrying your mom," Felicity replies. Seeing Oliver is still confused, she clarifies with, "Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet?" _

Malcolm smirked at that; while Ms. Smoak was quite off in her observations, she certainly had a sharp tongue. He wondered idly if Oliver would ever do anything to earn a tongue lashing from the woman.

_Oliver says, "I didn't study Shakespeare at any of the four schools that I dropped out of."  
_

Thea snickered at this while Moira had a resigned expression on her face. Malcolm was somewhat amused, primarily because he was trying to picture the relatively uneducated youth he recalled turning into the man who could challenge him and his plans for Starling City.

_Sighing, as though addressing a simpleton, Felicity turns and explains, "Mr. Steele is trying to buy Unidac Industries. And you've got a company laptop associated with one of the guys he's competing against."  
_

"_Floyd Lawton," Oliver replies._

"_No. Warren Patel." Felicity peers at Oliver curiously. "Who's Floyd Lawton?" _

"_He is an employee of Mr. Patel, evidently," Oliver says, as he studies the blue prints._

Malcolm shook his head ruefully. Warren was another person on the List, and it appeared that he had crossed Oliver's path quite inadvertently in this scenario. He knew that without this hindsight, the Malcolm they would be seeing on screen would be coming to a point where he would wish to take action at the first sign of the vigilante's identity.

_While Oliver studies them, another of his voice overs begin. "The exchange building is surrounded by 3 towers with eye lines into the building. Lawton could get a kill shot off from virtually anywhere. But I can't cover the area. I can't protect all of Deadshot's targets. I can't do this alone." _

_Outside the police precinct, Quentin is heading for his car. _

"Oh, hell, no," Quentin muttered to himself. He couldn't have started helping the Queen menace this early on, could he?

Laurel, also realizing what was going to happen, couldn't help it. She let out a laugh and then covered her mouth, her eyes showing her amusement at her father's upcoming predicament. Thea and Tommy were likewise amused at seeing where this train of thought was going and Moira couldn't help but shoot a smirk at the sour-faced Quentin.

Roy chuckled at seeing what everyone else was. "So much for him being a dangerous vigilante you would never, ever help, eh, Detective?" Roy asked, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

Malcolm kept silent, but he appeared as amused by the suspected course of action Oliver was going to take as everyone else.

_Oliver comes up from behind him and pins Quentin to the hood of the car. "Ah, you son of a bitch!" _

"_Detective, quiet!" _

"_You've got a pair on you, pulling this right outside the police station!" Quentin tells him. _

"_Floyd Lawton's the one targeting the buyers interested in Unidac Industries. Interpol calls him "Deadshot" because he never misses. You can look this up after I go."  
_

"_Yeah, and stop chasing you, I suppose?" Quentin asks sarcastically. _

_Oliver, ignoring the detective's biting comments, continues, "Warren Patel hired Lawton. I can't be sure who they're targeting, it might be all the buyers, and I can't protect them in a space that big. I need your help."  
_

_Yeah, professional help," Quentin replies.  
_

Laurel shook her head at her father's ability to shoot off sarcastic little comments even when pinned by a man he considered dangerous.

"_Lawton laces his bullets with curare. Tell your men to wear kevlar."_

_I'll tell them to shoot you-" Oliver takes off. _

_At the stock offering, Moira is speaking to Walter. "Well, it's quite a turn out."_

"_Well, it's quite an opportunity, actually," Walter says. "But regardless of the outcome of the auction, I'm already a winner because I have the two most beautiful women at my side tonight."_

Malcolm stiffened as he realized what Walter meant, and Moira moaned as well, despite knowing she would want her daughter with her.

_Moira asks, "Two?" _

"_Mm-hmm," Walter says, and turns Moira to face Thea, who smiles at them. "Thanks for coming, Thea. It means a lot to your mother. And me."  
_

_The coordinator comes up to Walter. "Mr. Steele, the auction will be opening in 5 minutes. Please make sure your bid is ready."_

"_Thank you, Gina," Walter says before gesturing the ladies to the 'auction room'. "Shall we?" _

_Oliver breaks away from his family and watches as officers, including Hilton, move to speak with Patel. "Warren Patel. I'm going to need you to come with me, sir."  
_

_Meanwhile, Lance and the other cops on the protection detail are checking in with one another. "Unit one, all clear. Unit two, you copy?" _

"_We have Patel in custody. Still, no sign of Lawton."  
_

"_Unit three?" _

"_I'm at the northwest perimeter. All clear."  
_

"_Unit four?" _

"_Parking structure is clear."  
_

"_Unit five, what's your status?" _

_Inside the vacant building across the way, an officer lays on the ground, dead. Deadshot taps the mike and says, "This is unit five. All clear."  
_

"Shit," Quentin hissed.

_At the courthouse, Laurel is going through some paperwork and finds Tommy waiting for her. "Oh, what a shock," he says, "It is Friday night. What are you doing here?" _

"_Well, I am an attorney and this is a courthouse, so I think the better question is, what are you doing here?" Laurel points out, ending with an inquisitive, if exasperated look on her face. _

"_I wanted to talk to you about last night," Tommy begins.  
_

"_You mean how I saved your asses? You're welcome," Laurel replies.  
_

Tommy coughed while Roy snickered and Thea smirked.

"_Okay, first of all, we shall never, ever speak of that ever again," Tommy says, desperate to keep his macho reputation. "And secondly, I think you know that I meant the other thing."  
_

"_I don't care to talk about that," Laurel says, before turning to leave.  
_

_Tommy stops her with his next words. "I spoke to Oliver. He was surprisingly cool."  
_

_Laurel turns, looking at Tommy. "That's because he knew." Tommy is shocked. "Did you see his face when Thea told him? Tommy, he didn't even blink. Trust me, he knew."  
_

"_Then why didn't he say anything?" Tommy asks, apparently a bit hurt. _

"_I don't know," Laurel replies. "Maybe because he knows he doesn't have any right to judge me."  
_

"_There's a silver lining, though," Tommy says, attempting to curry favor with her. "Now that the whole truth and nothing but is out, is there a chance now for you and me? You said you didn't think that I was a one girl type of guy.  
I'm going to prove you wrong."  
_

"_By dating me," Laurel replies, a degree of skepticism in her voice.  
_

"_By being better," Tommy replies. "By being someone that you deserve and that you want to be with."  
_

_Laurel, smiling a bit, replies, "Well that's certainly a guy I'd be interested in meeting."  
_

"_Good," Tommy says, grinning. "Now how about we start, ahem, by getting you the heck out of here. Come on, it is Friday night." When Laurel still looks reluctant, he pushes again. "Come on."  
_

"_Fine."  
_

"_Good." The two leave the courthouse together. _

"Awkward much?" Roy asked the crowd generally. Tommy and Laurel both leveled Looks at him this time, and he gave them an amused glance in return. "Seriously, do you two practice that in the mirror? Or do you just give each other those looks so often they're automatic?"

_At the stock offering, Quentin has found Oliver. "Well, don't you scrub up nice?" _

"_Here to support my family," Oliver replies.  
_

"_Yeah, me, too, God help me," Quentin replies.  
_

_Oliver, his expression and tone sincere, says, "Thank you." Quentin gives a sarcastic little huff while half-sneering before walking away. Oliver finds himself standing next to Diggle. "Dig. Got your eyes open?" _

"_That's what I'm here for, sir," Diggle replies, still with a bit of mild amusement in his voice. "That and answering patronizing questions." _

"_This guy's out of time," Oliver says softly, once again testing Diggle. "If he's going to do something, it's going to happen before the auction."  
_

Malcolm shook his head, chuckling. "He's testing him," he said. At the looks of those gathered, Malcolm elaborated, "Mr. Diggle would know Oliver's reputation, at the very least, and Oliver could have pulled the same things he does with the rest of us. But instead, he has done very little to cover his abilities or his actions while around Mr. Diggle. If Oliver did receive training from someone in a black ops. unit, as some of actions would suggest, then he might well be cultivating Mr. Diggle as an asset."

There were a few nods of agreement, but Quentin deigned not to acknowledge this in favor of giving Malcolm a suspicious glare. It was rather. . . . peculiar, that Merlyn Sr. had so much sympathy for Queen and the way he handled it. If Quentin didn't know better, he would begin to wonder if Oliver was Merlyn's kid as well as Thea.

"_Sir?" Diggle asks. _

"_I heard the story on the radio-" Oliver begins before being interrupted by Walter, who's standing nearby. _

_"Oliver. So pleased you were able to attend."  
_

_Across the street, Deadshot is watching the two men through the scope of his sniper rifle. "Walter, the police said that some of the Unidac bidders were murdered. I just think that we should be a little bit more careful." Back to Oliver and Walter, Oliver continues with, "My mother's already lost a husband."  
_

"_Well, if Moira shared your concern, she wouldn't have come," Walter says confidently. "And she definitely wouldn't have brought your sister." Oliver looks startled as Walter gestures to the two women. Oliver moves over to speak to them as Deadshot continues lining up his shot. _

Moira's breath caught in her throat as she felt horror creeping up on her. Would she lose another husband, this time to the cruelty of an assassin? _  
_

"_Hi," Oliver says, gesturing for DIggle to come over. _

_Moira, smiling, says, "Oliver, what a wonderful surprise," even as Diggle arrives by their side.  
_

_Oliver tells Diggle, gesturing to his mother and sister, "I need you to get them out of here right now."  
_

_Meanwhile, Deadshot has lined up his sights on Walter, but Quentin notices the laser sight and pulls Walter out of the way even as Deadshot fires. _

Moira felt a breath of relief leave her body, and Thea, who had been sitting tense beside her, sagged against Moira in relief.

_A waiter is struck instead. Immediately, the crowd begins to panic, filing towards the exits. Oliver asks his family, "Are you ok? Are you hurt?" _

"_No, I'm fine!" Moira replies, Thea nodding shakily beside her. "Where is Walter?" _

_Oliver turns and sees Walter being hurried away from the area by cops. "Walter's fine," he says.  
_

"_Sir, I have to get you out of here," Diggle says.  
_

"_No, them!" Oliver tells the man. "Them!" Diggle pushes the protesting women towards the exit while Oliver runs towards another staircase. Arriving in a stairwell, he pulls out the bag with his equipment and his hood.  
_

Malcolm frowned for a moment, before smirking. It appeared his word of caution to the Detective earlier would prove accurate.

_Diggle, finally having gotten the women to move forward, says, "Go, go, I'll find him, ma'am, I'll find him," to Moira's whispered horror about what might have happened to Oliver. He goes to the staircase, and sees the opened trashcan. He moves up, trying to find where his client has gone. _

_Across the street, Lawton is packing up when Oliver crashes through the window. Lawton fires at him, and Oliver moves into cover. He calls out, "Drop your guns."  
_

_Lawton, a tone of admiration coloring his voice, replies, "I admire your work." _

"I doubt Oliver's going to take kindly to a compliment from Mr. Lawton," Malcolm said dryly. There was a definite element of agreement as the others in the room acknowledged the truth of Malcolm's words, though that did nothing to keep their suspicions about his approval of Oliver's actions and his seemingly-insider knowledge on Oliver's training from rising.

_His tone takes on a bitter tinge. "Guess you won't be extending me any professional courtesy."  
_

"_We're not in the same line of work," Oliver denies. "Your profession is murder."  
_

"_You've taken lives," Lawton replies snidely.  
_

"_For the good of others," Oliver says, resolute. "You're out for yourself."  
_

_Lawton allows a small smirk to cross his face before he and Oliver engage in a firefight once more. The fight ends with Oliver putting an arrow through Lawton's eye. Oliver examines the man's body, but is distracted when he hears a noise behind him. Turning, he finds Diggle there, shot by one of Lawton's curare bullets. He grabs Diggle and moves to leave. _

Moira grimaced at this, guilt flooding her. Mr. Diggle had clearly gotten to the point that he wasn't going to let Oliver go anywhere alone, and followed his intuition. Moira's words of admonishment to him had likely caused him to push aside the caution he normally used.

_In a flashback, Oliver is awakened, still in the net, by Yao Fei. The man is holding a machete to the net. "Fool," he says in Mandarin. "This place is too dangerous for any one man to be alone." He cuts Oliver down and they escape back into the jungle. Black clad mercenaries find the cut net, revealing Oliver and Yao Fei are not on the island alone. _

As the images faded, more than one person was faced with the question of whether those they were seeing had tortured Oliver or helped in his training somehow.

_**(1) Yes, a bit 'prophetic' or 'corny' depending on your POV. But let's face it: even when she didn't know what her brother was, Thea teased Roy about his funeral. **_

_**(2) If you were expecting Malcolm to just flush his plans for the Undertaking at the first signs of trouble, you were wrong. One of the problems with the first version of this story was how quickly Malcolm seemed to shift his perceptions, particularly since I have been working on 'Emerald Archer' as best I can as well as reading fics such as Bloodsong's 'Green and Black' along with Ghostina's fic, both of which can be found on my favorites list. **_

_**(3) I'll be perfectly honest: if Laurel in fact knew about the many times Oliver slept around on her, than I don't give a flying fuck if she's 'meant to be the Black Canary', because when I think of 'the Black Canary', I think of a kick-ass femme fatale who is not going to go crawling back to a guy who cheated on her multiple times. So if Laurel did know, then I will never consider her worthy of the Black Canary name, even if she wears the outfit and fights crime. When Sara says "we both know at least 10 different girls he's slept with" during the flashbacks of 2x13, I tend to think she is talking about when he and Laurel weren't together.**_

_**(4) It's been well established in the series that Malcolm has a very twisted idea of how his relationship with his children should work. We all saw he was a bit disappointed with Tommy throughout Season 1, and how proud he was that Thea shot him. **_


End file.
